Net profit, however, fell to Rs 16 crore from Rs 98 crore in FY22, on account of a significant increase in employee costs and provisioning towards certain non-cash expenses, which led to a sevenfold jump in total expenses, PhysicsWallah said in a news release Friday.
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The Noida-based company has not yet filed its financial returns with the Registrar of Companies.
PhysicsWallah, which raised $100 million during FY23, acquired eight smaller companies, including edtech startups such as Xylem Learning, PrepOnline and Altis Vortex, in the year.
The company said revenue from this inorganic expansion totalling around Rs 500 crore will reflect in its FY24 consolidated financials.
“Our growth was significant both in the online and offline space,” cofounder Prateek Maheshwari said.
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Student headcount for its online courses grew two-and-a-half times to 2.35 million from 900,000 in FY22, he said. In offline, the number increased five-and-a-half times to 60,000 enrolments.“We will keep investing in more categories…to remain in a hyper-growth phase. We are in no hurry to compromise growth for achieving a steady-state margin profile,” he added.
PhysicsWallah’s total expenses, including one-time costs and non-cash expenses, came in at Rs 777 crore for FY23, compared with Rs 103 crore in the previous year.
This included a 10-time increase in employee benefit expenses to Rs 406 crore. PhysicsWallah’s chief strategy officer, Abhishek Mishra, told ET that the costs included expenses on account of employee stock options – which were not provisioned for last year – worth Rs 38 crore.
Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) – excluding the one-time non-cash expenses – came in at Rs 127 crore in FY23, against Rs 134 crore in FY22.
Offline business accounted for around one-third of its revenue, amid an expansion in offline centres. It currently has 58 offline centres and plans to take this number to over 120 by the end of the ongoing fiscal year.
PhysicsWallah is expanding scale at a time when the broader edtech ecosystem is witnessing a slump. While the segment has seen widespread job cuts, PhysicsWallah also last month laid off 120 people citing performance concerns.
Other edtech firms including Byju’s and Unacademy have also been under pressure to cut down on cash burn and move towards profitability. Byju’s laid off 2,500 employees in October.