PhysicsWallah’s Rs 3,480-Cr IPO to open on November 11

Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah (PW) has filed its red herring prospectus (RHP) for an initial public offering (IPO) worth Rs 3,480 crore. The issue will open on November 11 for subscription and close on November 13.

The company, viewed as an edtech torchbearer that can restore the industry's reputation after bruising years dominated by BYJU'S' troubles, plans to start trading its shares on the stock exchange on November 18. 

The anchor investor bidding date is November 10, and the company will finalise the allotment on November 14.

The proposed IPO includes a fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 3,100 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of shares aggregating up to Rs 380 crore, with promoters Alakh Pandey and Prateek Boob (Maheshwari) partially offloading their stake.

What began with Pandey teaching physics on a whiteboard on YouTube has grown into a billion-dollar company now preparing to test the public markets.

Only Eruditus matches the scale of the nearly Rs 3,000-crore revenue enterprise whose growth is driven by both its online engine and a fast expansion of offline and hybrid centres.

In fiscal year 2025, the company reported operating revenue of Rs 2,886.6 crore, almost 49% higher than the year before. It also generated Rs 506.9 crore in operating cash flow and posted an adjusted operating profit of Rs 432 crore, giving it a margin of nearly 15%.

Operating cash flow shows the money left after paying suppliers and employees, while adjusted EBITDA strips out non-cash and one-off items to give a picture of underlying profitability.

Yet, the bottom line remained in the red. PW ended the year with a net loss of Rs 243.7 crore, though this was a sharp improvement on the Rs 1,131.1 crore loss recorded in FY24, but wider than the Rs 84.1 crore loss in FY23.

PW has raised a total of $312 million across multiple funding rounds. The most recent and significant raise was a Series B round in September 2024, when the company secured $210 million, led by Hornbill Capital, with substantial participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSV Ventures, and WestBridge Capital.