1. At a Glance
PhysicsWallah has officially entered its “corporate tuition” era. From free physics videos to ringing the IPO bell, the company now sits at a market cap of ₹33,180 Cr, a stock price of ₹116, and a valuation that screams “growth story loading, profitability buffering”.
Q3 FY26 numbers came in hot: revenue of ₹10,824 Mn, up 33.7% YoY, with PAT of ₹1,023 Mn, growing 27.7% YoY. Sounds solid, right? Now zoom out. Full-year FY25 still shows PAT of -₹98.9 Cr, ROCE at -2.12%, and an EV/EBITDA of 105x — basically the market is paying tomorrow’s salary today.
Offline is now the bigger child in the family — 53% of H1 FY26 revenue, with 303 centres and 166 hostels, while online still pulls serious weight via 13.7 Mn YouTube subscribers acting as the cheapest marketing funnel in India.
Debt stands at ₹970 Cr, promoter holding dropped sharply post-IPO but still a comfy 72.3%, and the company is in full “scale first, margins later” mode.
So the big question: Is this the Netflix of education… or just a very well-funded coaching class with WiFi?
2. Introduction
PhysicsWallah is what happens when Indian middle-class aspiration meets YouTube algorithms and affordable pricing. Founded in 2014 as a humble free-learning channel, the company rode the pandemic wave like a seasoned surfer — while others charged ₹1 lakh, PW said “bhai ₹4,500 mein kaam ho jayega”.
Between FY23 and FY25, revenue clocked a 41.8% CAGR, paid users jumped from 1.76 Mn to 4.46 Mn, and the brand became synonymous with “education for the masses.” That’s not edtech, that’s emotional equity.
But public markets are not comment sections. They don’t clap, they calculate. After listing in November 2025 and raising ₹3,480 Cr, PhysicsWallah now answers to quarterly scrutiny, margin math, and capital allocation questions.
The irony? The company finally reported strong quarterly profits after listing —
but legacy losses, heavy depreciation, and expansion costs still drag full-year metrics into the red.
So now PW stands at a crossroads:
Can scale convert into sustainable profits, or will affordability forever fight margins?
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
At its core, PhysicsWallah sells hope with syllabus alignment.
The model runs on three engines:
1) Online
Apps, live classes, recorded lectures, test series — priced aggressively low. This is the brand’s soul and funnel. YouTube pulls users in, app converts them, Telegram retains them. Cost of acquisition? Practically free compared to peers.
2) Offline
PW Vidyapeeth, Pathshala, and acquired brands like Xylem — physical centres where Indian parents finally feel “haan beta padh raha hai”. Offline ARPU sits at ₹11,821, lower than legacy coaching but scaled across 0.33 Mn students.
3) Hybrid
Online lectures + offline doubt-solving. This is where PW is betting big — blending scalability with stickiness.
The content moat is real: 4,382 books, 8.66 Mn questions, AI-backed personalization. Faculty strength of 6,267, total employees 18,028. This is no longer a startup — it’s an education factory.
Still, one uncomfortable truth remains: education doesn’t scale like software. Teachers cost money. Centres eat capex. Discounts attract users but delay profits.
So ask yourself — is
