Starting At Rs 30,000—This Edtech Giant Is Now Valued At Rs 31,000 Crore: The Rise Of PhysicsWallah

Edtech platform PhysicsWallah launched its much-awaited initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday, offering investors a chance to become a part of the journey of one of India’s most successful ventures in the education sector.

Started with an investment of just Rs 30,000 as a simple YouTube channel, PhysicsWallah has transformed into an edtech giant worth over Rs 31,000 crore. The proceeds from the Rs 3,480-crore IPO will be used by the company for expanding its footprint as it seeks to further cement its position as a leading force in India’s rapidly growing edtech sector.

While investors and analysts keep a watch on PhysicsWallah’s financial performance and growth prospects after its market debut, the rise of the company also inspires many budding entrepreneurs. The growth of PhysicsWallah marks its founder and CEO, Alakh Pandey’s remarkable achievement of transforming a simple YouTube channel into an edtech giant.

It all started with Alakh Pandey’s passion for physics. Pandey, who belongs to Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, began teaching the subject while he was still in school. Around 2016, he started a YouTube channel called PhysicsWallah with an initial investment of just Rs 30,000.

What began as simple videos explaining physics concepts soon turned into a movement. Pandey’s values and teaching style deeply resonated with millions of students across India, pushing his YouTube subscribers to more than two million by 2019. In 2022, the subscriber base more than tripled to over 6.8 million.

Pandey's online physics classes gained massive traction during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when education went online amid the lockdown. During this time, Pandey met Prateek Maheswari, a mechanical engineer from IIT-BHU.

Together, they built the PW App, which became a lifeline for students preparing for competitive exams during the lockdown. The app offered quality courses at one-tenth the price of its competitors.

The founders were running the business with the vision that education should not be limited to those who can afford it. This approach won the trust of millions of students. By 2022, PhysicsWallah had turned into a unicorn, valued at over $1 billion, after its first funding round.

Today, the simple YouTube channel has expanded into a full-fledged edtech company offering courses for over 35 exam categories. More than 36 million students now follow its online content and over 15 million use the PW App regularly. PhysicsWallah’s popularity is evident from the fact that Pandey’s journey has been showcased in a web series titled “PhysicsWallah”. The web series was released in 2022.

The company has also been running its physical centres under four brands: Vidyapeeth for offline classes, Pathshala for hybrid learning, PW Tuition for school coaching and the Vidyapeeth Residential Programme.

Despite its rapid growth, Pandey is known for his humble attitude and deep connection to his roots. In June 2025, PW signed an MoU with the CRPF Family Welfare Association to provide scholarships for the children of CRPF personnel. The company also granted full fee waivers worth several crores to students from economically weaker backgrounds.

In a media interview last year, Co-founder Prateek Maheswari shared that Physics Wallah operates 81 YouTube channels with over 36 million subscribers and more than 2.1 million daily active users. Now, the focus is on the ongoing IPO as investors eagerly await the market’s response and the next chapter in PhysicsWallah’s journey.