Edtech unicorn Physics Wallah bets big on offline expansion, to open over 60 centres by 2024

Edtech unicorn Physics Wallah is scaling its offline centres, which have proven to be the fastest growing vertical for the company in terms of learner enrolment and revenue generation.

The company plans to invest ₹150 crore by 2025 for the expansion of its offline businesses, Vidyapeeths and Paathshalas, said Prateek Maheshwari, co-founder of Physcis Wallah (PW).

“We have allocated ₹150 crore for expansion of offline centres and we may increase this allocation,” he said.

hybrid model

The company currently is operational in 38 cities through Vidyapeeth business and has Paathshala business in hybrid model in 16 cities, is expanding it to 26 more cities via Vidyapeeths and 39 more cities with Paathshalas, thus taking its presence to 119 cities across India, said Ankit Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, PW Offline.

“It is a tech-oriented offline business. Vidyapeeth, Patshala offline business will be present in 119 cities across India. Our offline is a lot of empowered with our online technology and online touch points. And similarly, in online, we have introduced a lot of offline touch points as well,” he said.

With expansion of the offline centres, especially in tier-3 and tier-4 cities, the company is also working on its teacher training program in order to provide and ensure quality education. The company has a dedicated faculty training centre, where every three months, they train teachers for these centres.

Currently, the company has a student base of 135,000 which is estimated to reach 250,000 by the end of FY24.

Revenue

Amid the challenging times in the edtech space, PW stands out as one of the profitable unicorn in the space. The company recorded ₹780 crore in revenue for FY22-23. It is targetting a total revenue of ₹2,400 crore at the group level, with PW business contributing ₹1,900 crore and the remaining from its inorganic expansion, said Prateek Maheshwari.

“For FY24, we see 100 per cent growth in online learners, and 150 per cent growth in terms of offline learners,” he said.

Despite the fact that 92 per cent of the user base of Physics Wallah is through the online channels, the offline centres contribute nearly 40 per cent of the overall revenue. In FY24, the company projects that 45 per cent of the revenue would be from offline expansion and by FY25 it projects it would be half of its total revenue.