PhysicsWallah makes its market debut at 33% premium

One of the most anticipated IPOs of the year has reached its milestone as edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah (PW) listed on the stock exchanges on November 18.

The stock opened at Rs 143 on BSE and at Rs 145 on NSE, reflecting a listing movement of 31.3% and 33%, respectively, as trading began.

The IPO drew a firm response, particularly on the final day of bidding on November 13. Overall subscription reached about 1.8 times, helped by qualified institutional buyers (QIB) who entered the book after a quiet start. The QIB quota was subscribed around 2.7 times.

Retail investors achieved little over full subscription. The employee category saw strong interest with nearly 3.5 times the subscription, which reflects internal confidence in the business. In contrast, non-institutional investors subscribed 48% of their allocation.

PW offered nearly 18.62 crore shares in a public issue aimed at raising about Rs 3,480 crore. This includes a fresh issue of Rs 3,100 crore and an offer for sale of Rs 380 crore by co-founders Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari.

The price band was set between Rs 103 and Rs 109 per share, which values the company at more than Rs 31,500 crore at the upper end.

A day before the offer opened, the company secured Rs 1,563 crore from anchor investors at Rs 109 per share. Domestic mutual funds accounted for more than half of the allocation, which indicates early institutional support.

Investors will now watch how the stock performs on debut, which may signal broader sentiment around the company’s growth story.

For FY25, PW reported operating revenue of Rs 2,886.6 crore, which is nearly 49% higher than the previous year. Operating cash flow stood at Rs 506.9 crore and adjusted operating profit was Rs 432 crore with a margin close to 15%. The company recorded a net loss of Rs 243.7 crore. This was a significant improvement on the loss of Rs 1,131.1 crore in FY24, although wider than the loss in FY23.

Before the IPO proceedings, PW had raised a cumulative $312 million across several funding rounds. The most recent was a Series B round in September 2024, when it secured $210 million led by Hornbill Capital with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSV Ventures and WestBridge Capital.

Founded in 2016 as a YouTube-based learning channel, PW has expanded into a large education platform with online courses, classroom centres and hybrid programmes. Its primary audience comprises students in Tier II and Tier III cities preparing for engineering, medical and government entrance examinations.