Physics Wallah raises $210 mn at $2.8 bn valuation

Ed-tech unicorn Physics Wallah has closed its Series B funding round, raising $210 million at the company’s post-money valuation of $2.8 billion, a 2.5x jump over its last valuation of $1.1 billion. The latest funding round was led by Hornbill Capital, with Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSV and WestBridge.

Physics Wallah Counder and CEO Alakh Pandey says the investment is a "testament to the impact the startup has created" over the years.

Co-founder Prateek Maheshwari says the latest funding will enable the company to expand. “This comes on the back of strong sustainable y-o-y growth – FY25 is going to be the year of largest absolute EBITDA profitability for the PW Group."

Physics Wallah claims to produce 9,500 hours of educational content every week, with a student base across 18,808 pin codes.

The company plans to use the funds to scale operations, with a key focus on consolidation in the education market. "Physics Wallah plans to pursue inorganic expansion, enter the K-12 formal education segment, enhance its content and publication offerings, and explore mergers with community-driven education platforms across categories,” the company says.

Indian startups raised $6.3 billion in a total of 672 deals in the first half of the fiscal year (January-July 2024 period), seeing a 42.1% year-on-year (YoY) increase in funding value, despite a modest 1.2% rise in deal volume, the GlobalData data shows.

The spike in VC funding in the first seven months of 2024 can be attributed to high investor confidence in India’s startups, even amid cautious global market conditions. During the same period last year, India witnessed a total of 664 VC deals with disclosed funding value worth $4.4 billion during January-July 2023.

Some of the notable venture funding deals announced in India during January-July 2024 include $665 million worth of funding raised by Zepto, $300 million raised by Meesho, $216 million worth of funding raised by PharmEasy, $150 million worth of funding raised by Radiance, $148 million worth funding raised by Kogta Financial and $120 million worth funding raised by Rapido.

India accounted for around 7% share of the total number of VC deals announced globally during January-July 2024, while its share of the corresponding disclosed funding value stood at 4.3%.

India remains the “fourth-highest funded country globally” in the tech startup landscape, market intelligence firm Tracxn data shows. The first half of the fiscal year saw three new unicorns, a rise from none in H1 2023, alongside 33 new additions to the Soonicorn club. New IPOs also rose to 20 in H1 2024, from 6 in H1 2023 and 12 in H2 2023. Some of the companies that went public included TBO, TGIF Agribusiness, Radiowalla and Trust Systems & S/w.