Fresh from a fund raise earlier this week which valued it at $2.8bn, PhysicsWallah is now looking to test the Indian public markets in 2025 as the edtech unicorn has called a clutch of investment banks for initial public offer (IPO) pitches next week, four persons in the know told Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.
"RFPs (request for proposals) have been sent to at least 10 investment banks, inviting them to make IPO pitches which are scheduled for the coming week. These are early days and no final call has been taken but the intent to list is there," said one of the persons above.
Two other persons confirmed the above reach out to potential advisors.
A fourth person familiar with the plans of the firm told Moneycontrol, "With the latest fund raise in the bag, they are now looking to aggressively pursue their listing plans. They have scaled up, built credibility and have a strong online community. Early indications are that they are targeting a premium valuation significantly above the current $2.8 bn."
Moneycontrol is awaiting the response to an email query sent to PhysicsWallah and has sent reminders. This article will be updated as soon as we hear from the firm.
If talks fructify into an eventual listing, PhysicsWallah could potentially become India's first ed tech firm to debut on the domestic bourses, considering uncertainty around the earlier listing plans of troubled peer Byju's arm Akash Education Services.
To be sure, peers UpGrad and Vedantu have also spoken about their IPO plans in the past.
Unacademy, Unext Learning, Allen Career Institute, K12 Techno, Brightchamps and Simplilearn are some of the other firms operating in the segment.
On September 20, PhysicsWallah raised $210 million via a combination of primary and secondary transactions. The capital raise, led by Hornbill Capital, saw participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, as well as existing investors WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures.
Despite challenges in the Indian edtech sector, the valuation of $2.8 billion secured by PhysicsWallah was 2.5 times higher than the earlier valuation of $1.1 bn post its previous funding, reflecting investor confidence in the industry's potential. The firm had mopped up $102 million from WestBridge and GSV Ventures in its debut fund raise.
Also Read: 9 Indian edtech companies with post-money valuation over Rs 2,000 crore
Noida-headquartered PhysicsWallah counts teacher-turned-entrepreneur Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari as co-founders. The firm has over 55 lakh paid students, 4.6 crore YouTube channel subscribers, 14,000 plus employees and covers at least 105 cities with 2 lakh plus students in offline centres.
In an exclusive interview to Moneycontrol after sealing its latest fund raise, the firm's founders said, "Honestly, we didn’t actively chase investors for this round; there was some inbound interest. We are sitting on a Rs 1,200-crore treasury, and for innovation or building from ground up, we need capital. There is no specific use for the fresh capital at the moment. We’re not targeting any particular acquisition right now. The company has grown significantly since our first fundraise, and a larger treasury gives us more comfort. We’ll determine the capital deployment with time."
They added, "FY25 is expected to be our highest absolute EBITDA year. While our online operations have been nearly 50 percent profitable from day one, our offline centres, which have required significant capital expenditure, will also start delivering results over time. For FY24, our revenue grew 2.5X."
The firm had projected a revenue of Rs 2,400 crore for FY24.
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