PhysicsWallah to invest Rs 100 Cr to strengthen UPSC arm
PhysicsWallah's offline UPSC vertical, PWOnlyIAS, aims to cater to more than 10 cities and over 3 lakh aspirants in the next three years.
Edtech major (PW) plans to invest Rs 100 crore to strengthen its Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) offerings.
The company’s UPSC vertical has a presence in both online (UPSC Wallah) and offline (PWOnlyIAS) segments. It launched the first offline centre in Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar.
“After experiencing great success with UPSC Wallah, we saw the need to extend our expertise to the UPSC community through offline centres,” Alakh Pandey, Founder and CEO of PW, said in a statement. “We have received an overwhelming amount of support and enthusiasm from civil services aspirants and are excited to continue guiding them on their journey toward success.”
The Delhi-based company plans to invest in technology innovation, session-wise constructive pedagogy, content, and hiring teachers.
PWOnlyIAS aims to cater to more than 10 cities and over three lakh aspirants in the next three years, capturing a 20% market share of PW UPSC aspirants, it said.
Earlier this month, PW launched 50 offline centres across India, with an investment of $10 million in tech innovation to aid offline coaching.
The pandemic contributed to the acceptance of online learning, but with things returning to normalcy in the post-pandemic era, edtech companies see a hybrid future.
These developments come at a time when edtech unicorns are witnessing losses, laying off employees, slowing expansion plans, and trying to burn as little cash as possible amid a funding winter.
PhysicsWallah has been a rare profit-making edtech startup since its incorporation in 2020, registering a 14-fold jump in the fiscal year 2021-22. For the just-concluded 2023 financial year, Co-founder Prateek Maheshwari expects the unicorn to register a “sizeable profit,” riding a three-fold increase in revenue to about Rs 780 crore ($95 million).
For the ongoing financial year (FY2023-24), the company is targeting revenue of Rs 2,500 crore ($300 million) at the group level, Maheshwari recently told YourStory in an interaction.
Edited by Kanishk Singh