Ed-tech company Physics Wallah (PW) is on a major expansion spree for its offline learning business. As the pandemic ebbed last year, Physics Wallah, which started as a YouTube channel in 2016, came up with Pathshala, its hybrid learning classroom, followed by Vidyapeeth, a completely offline learning centre for engineering and medical entrance exams.
After the launch last year, “Our Vidyapeeth business is now present across 37 cities with 63 centres. And the Pathshala business is operating across 16 cities with 16 centres,” said Ankit Gupta, CEO of Physics Wallah Offline. According to the executive, as many as 1,40,000 students are currently enrolled, with 1,30,000 at Vidyapeeth and 10,000 at Pathshala.
Again, the company has laid an extensive expansion plan. “For Vidyapeeth, we have short-listed 26 more cities and are going deeper into the states now. For example, Maharashtra, where we are already present in places like Sambhaji Nagar, Pune, and Nanded. Now, we are getting into Nagpur, Nashik, Latur, Kolhapur, and Mumbai. Similarly, we will be expanding Pathshala to 39 more cities,” Gupta said.
While popular in the north, PW lacks significant presence in the south. “While in phase I and II, we did not expand much into the south, we are doing so in phase III, which is the academic year 2024-25. We will be going deeper into Bengaluru, along with states like Andhra Pradesh. We have an online presence there, but now we are expanding offline,” the executive said. The company recently bought 50% stakes in Xylem Learning, a Kerala-based ed-tech company.
Notably, PW is expanding when ed-tech as a sector can be seen struggling, with industry leaders registering huge losses. There have been mass layoffs, and vacating of office spaces, and some firms have even shut shops. On the other hand, PW has clocked profit for three consecutive years, eyeing a fourth one, and is looking to expand within India and internationally.
Among the reasons behind expanding offline learning to other cities, which includes several tier-I, II, and III cities, is to not put “undue pressure” on cities like Kota. “A student in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, or Bihar shouldn’t think that only Kota is where coaching for JEE and NEET can happen. We want to make quality education available in cities where the students are present so they can study while staying with their families. So they wouldn’t feel homesick, and most importantly, there would be financial peace. At the same time, this will provide a breathing space to cities like Kota,” said Gupta.
Notably, PW is extensively expanding its offline learning presence for exams like JEE and NEET, while also keeping its focus on other exam categories. In May, it announced PWOnlyIAS, an offline UPSC test preparation centre in Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar. “UPSC is the second-best industry after JEE/NEET,” said PW co-founder Prateek Maheshwari. “We are also coming up with one centre for GATE preparation and a few centres for one-day examinations,” the co-founder said.
Speaking on the growing emphasis on offline learning, Maheshwari said, “If you see it from the eyes of the students, offline gives them comfort, regularity. They feel more competitive and get the physical touch of teachers, which cannot be replaced by online learning. On the other hand, online saves time and offers flexibility. Having said that, online can be a bit stressful for the learners and requires you to be very self-motivated and dedicated to learning online. Still, 95% of our total learners till last year were online.”
Fundamentally a tech company, there is a 92:8 split between online and offline when it comes to the number of students. However, in terms of revenue, it is 60:40, Maheshwari said. However, going forward, the company is doubling down on its offline arm. “Next year, the revenue split will be 55% and 45% for online and offline, respectively. And the year after that, it will be 1:1, which is 50% online and 50% offline. But in terms of head-count, mostly it will be 90:10,” the co-founder said. While both the verticals are growing, Maheshwari said, “Online is more profitable because there is a lot of capex cost in offline.”
Despite recent events and numbers pointing at the allure of physical learning, the co-founder of the ed-tech company said the industry as a whole is moving not towards offline but “hybrid” learning. In an interesting development in the offline domain, the company has announced PW Institute of Innovation (IOI), a four-year “fully residential programme in computer science and AI combines real-world experience with an industry-focused curriculum” that will start next month in Bengaluru.
“That is where the future of learning is,” said Maheshwari. Explaining the concept, he said, “We are trying to create a programme where a student will be made industry-ready. We see a great gap between what the current colleges are providing, and what the current industry needs. And we want to bridge that gap. So with that vision, we have launched the IOI.”
The programme doesn’t provide a degree but a four-year residential programme to make students industry-ready. “The entire faculty pool of IOI consists of experienced current industry leaders. There will be 18 months of internship. For the degree, students can pursue institutes that offer online degrees,” Maheshwari said. This year, the company is targetting 200 learners for the programme, whose cost includes a Rs 6 lakh tuition fee and about Rs 7.5 lakh of residential cost. “Since we are starting it in Bengaluru, it is slightly more expensive due to the expenses of the city. Next year, we will try to bring the cumulative fee below Rs 10 lakh,” the executive said. While the pragramme has been launched in Bengaluru, “we will be coming in multiple more cities next year,” he added.