PhysicsWallah becomes a unicorn

While several ed-tech companies are laying off employees due to shortage of funds, PhysicsWallah has raised $100 million and has become a unicorn.

PhysicsWallah has raised $100 million in Series A funding from Westbridge and GSV Ventures. With this, the firm has become India's 101st unicorn. This transaction values the company at $1.1 billion post-completions.

PhysicsWallah currently has 5.2 million Play Store downloads and 6.9 million subscribers on YouTube. The company claims its revenue grew nine-fold in 2021-2022 against the previous year. It is gearing up to launch educational content in nine vernacular languages, including Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Odia, Malayalam, and Kannada.

"The Indian edtech ecosystem has grown considerably over the last two years; however, recent developments have demonstrated the firsthand importance of an efficient edtech infrastructure,"

said Sandeep Singhal, managing director, WestBridge Capital.

Of late, several edtech companies have been suffering from fund shortage. Vedantu had laid off 424 employees after sending out 200 contractual and full-time staff earlier in May.

In April another ed-tech company Unacademy had laid off 600 employees or around 10 per cent of the company's total workforce.

Eruditus Group, which is valued at $3.2 billion, is reportedly laying off a section of its employees,

as a part of its business restructuring to focus on profitability. Udayy is shutting down and laying off all its employees as growth stagnates within the online and live learning model.

FrontRow has laid off close to 145 full-time and contractual employees, almost 30 per cent of its workforce, as funding dries up amid the market downturn.

Byjus, on the other hand, is expanding its global operations and looking at a 'hybrid model', combining online and offline classes.