PhysicsWallah forays into upskilling with iNeuron acquisition

The startup, valued at $1.1 billion, startup will acquire iNeuron.ai from National Stock Exchange-listed publishing and education services firm S Chand and Company for about Rs 14 crore ($1.7 million). Mukesh Sharma Family Trust, a co-investor, will also exit iNeuron. The deal value was not disclosed.

“I have come to realise in the last 1.5 years that preparing a child for just NEET and JEE entrance tests won’t be enough… broadly speaking, curriculums at universities are outdated and not built for industry’s real-time needs,” PhysicsWallah founder and CEO Alakh Pandey told ET.

iNeuron offers 605 courses across about 12 verticals such as business management, finance, data science, web development, digital marketing. A job guarantee feature included in some of iNeuron’s business will be removed with PhysicsWallah’s partnership. PhysicsWallah’s employee strength will increase from 5,200 to 5,300 with the acquisition, Pandey told ET.

iNeuron will benefit from PhysicsWallah’s existing user base of about four lakh engineering students, Pandey said, adding that iNeuron has 10,000-15,000 unique learners in total. Founded by former EY and Panasonic executives Sudhanshu Kumar and Krish Naik, iNeuron acquired YouTube influencer Hitesh Chaudhary’s learning platform Learn Code Online (LCO) in April for Rs 110-120 crore,
as ET reported.

S Chand and Company on Wednesday told the exchanges that it had invested about Rs 7 crore in iNeuron.ai in December 2021, thereby scoring a 2X return on investments. It had exited another edtech startup, Testbook, with an 8X return in July.

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“This transaction additionally enables us to monetise our edtech investments at an attractive valuation and provides opportunities to explore future investments that align with our growth strategies. We are focused on developing our own solutions and channels of interactive learning for K-12, test prep & college and will be launching newer initiatives and content to spearhead and navigate India’s journey on the back of the New Education Policy 2020,” Saurabh Mittal, CFO of S Chand and Company, said in the disclosure.
Westbridge Capital-backed PhysicsWallah has grown from offering JEE and NEET preparation services in 2017 to defense services entrance test prep in 2021 and UPSC and GATE preparation services in 2022. It also offers coaching through its offline centres, as well as board examination preparation for primary, secondary and higher secondary schooling. Beyond prep, it also monetises through an online store where it sells study materials, stationary, books and electronics.

India’s only profitable edtech unicorn has acquired three products in the past – online medical entrance tests coaching platform PrepOnline and exam preparation books publisher Altis Vortex in October 2022, and doubt-solving and resource management startup FreeCo in August 2022.

Pandey said the company is now expecting four-fold growth in revenue in the current financial year.