PhysicsWallah IPO: Edtech Unicorn Latest To Confidentially File For Over Rs 4,500 Crore Offer, Sources Say
PhysicsWallah is the latest addition in the long list of confidential filings which includes the likes of Indira IVF, Swiggy, Credila Financial Services and Vishal Mega Mart
Delhi-based edtech major PhysicsWallah has confidentially filed draft papers for an initial public offering worth over Rs 4,500 crore, people familiar with the matter told NDTV Profit.
The offer will include both the primary issuance of shares and a large stake sale by existing investors, another person said on the condition of anonymity. The offer is expected to be at a higher valuation than the Rs 23,400 crore valuation the company had in its previous funding round, where it managed to raise about Rs 1,750 crore.
The last funding round, which marked a 2.5 times jump over PhysicsWallah's previous valuation of $1.1 billion, was led by Hornbill Capital, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners alongside existing investors GSV and WestBridge.
JPMorgan India Pvt., Axis Capital Ltd. and Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. are the lead bankers to the deal.
This makes PhysicsWallah the latest addition to the long list of confidential filings which includes the likes of EQT-backed Indira IVF, Swiggy Ltd., Credila Financial Services Ltd. and Vishal Mega Mart Ltd.
A representative from PhysicsWallah declined to comment on the confidential filing.
PhysicsWallah's Financials
Co-founded by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, PhysicsWallah is one of India's rare edtech unicorns with a presence across 135 cities, including Kota, Patna and New Delhi. Apart from online lectures, it claims to have a presence spanning offline and hybrid modes, reaching 98% of the country's pin codes.
"PW has more than 10 million paid students on the PW App. PW also provides quality education to more than 36 million students through its 80 YouTube channels in eight vernacular languages," the website reads.
The company's consolidated revenue from operations rose 2.6 times to Rs 1,940 crore on a year-on-year basis for the 2024 fiscal, but its losses widened nearly 13 times to Rs 1,041 crore. This was mainly on the back of higher employee benefit expenses, which jumped 2.8 times on the year to Rs 1,159 crore.
Meanwhile, the platform's other expenses, too, jumped over five times to Rs 1,660 crore in the same period. PhysicsWallah's Ebitda loss also widened to Rs 975 crore from the previous year's Rs 22 crore.
Why A Confidential Filing
The confidential route is an optional mechanism where companies file for their IPO without disclosing their draft red herring prospectus to the public. SEBI enabled this in December 2022, and Tata Play Ltd. became the first company to make use of it.
The DRHP is released only when the company decides to go live with its IPO. A confidential filing allows a company to protect what it believes to be sensitive data from its competitors.
Usually, a confidential IPO filing process is more time-consuming compared to the traditional process and comes with higher advisory and legal fees. However, the filing of a pre-filed DRHP does not necessarily mean that the company will undertake the initial public offering.
