Edtech company Physics Wallah (PW) has raised $210 million in a Series B funding round led by Hornbill Capital, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSV, and WestBridge.

This latest investment brings PW's post-money valuation to $2.8 billion, a 2.5x increase from its previous $1.1 billion valuation when the Noida-based firm secured $100 million in its Series A round, according to the company.

Entrackr exclusively reported on both the Series A and Series B rounds. The newly raised funds will be used to expand operations, with a focus on consolidating the education market.

PW also plans to pursue inorganic growth, enter the K-12 segment, enhance its content offerings, and explore potential mergers with community-driven education platforms.

“This investment not only validates our efforts to democratize education and make quality learning accessible to every student in India but also underscores the impact we’ve created over the years,” said Alakh Pandey, founder and CEO of Physics Wallah.

Founded in 2020 by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, Physics Wallah provides online and offline courses and study materials for JEE, NEET, and other engineering entrance exams, as well as state board exams.

The company also operates divisions focused on skilling, higher education, and studying abroad, with its Institute of Innovation (IOI) offering 4-year residential programs emphasizing job readiness.

Originally launched as a YouTube channel in 2014, Physics Wallah claims to provide free education to over 46 million students through its 112+ YouTube channels in five vernacular languages. Its app has been downloaded over 30 million times, with 5.5 million paid users.

In FY23, Physics Wallah saw a 3.3x revenue increase to Rs 779 crore, though profits dropped by over 90% to Rs 8.87 crore. While its FY24 results are yet to be released, the company expects to have reached Rs 2,000 crore in revenue for the last fiscal year.

This funding comes at a time when investment in the edtech sector has slowed significantly. Data from TheKredible shows that edtech startups raised around $160 million across 27 deals in 2024 so far, compared to $456 million in 2023, $2.3 billion in 2022, and $5.8 billion in 2021.