The decision, undertaken after a mid-term appraisal analysis ended in October, is aimed at ensuring Physics Wallah’s primary focus on maintaining a high-performing team, a top official told ET. The spokesperson was responding to ET’s request for comments on several posts on social media about Physics Wallah laying off over 500 staffers in a “totally unprofessional” manner. ET could not verify the contents of the social media posts.
“We plan to hire an additional 1,000 employees in the next six months, reinforcing our commitment to growth. We deeply value the dedication of our existing employees and recognize their integral role in shaping the future of education technology,” Satish Khengre, chief human resources officer of Physics Wallah, told ET
Physics Wallah prepares students for competitive engineering and medical entrance examinations.
In August, Physics Wallah had said it was launching 26 offline centres across India across as many cities. Currently, it runs 67 centres, called PW Vidyapeeth, operating in 38 cities. The offline centres offer curriculum for engineering and medical entrance examinations.
Founded by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, Physics Wallah entered the unicorn club last year, when it raised $100 million in its maiden funding round from WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures at a valuation of $1.1 billion. A unicorn is a privately-held startup valued at $1 billion or more.
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The profitable venture’s revenue in the financial year ended March 2023 had jumped three-fold to Rs 780 crore as compared to Rs 233 crore in FY22. For FY24, it has set a revenue target of Rs 2,500 crore at the group level, with about Rs 1,900 crore coming in from its core operations and the remainder from acquired businesses.In June, Physics Wallah had announced a Rs 500 crore investment to acquire Kerala-based hybrid learning platform Xylem Learning over the next three years to acquire a 50% stake.
Xylem Learning was the latest in a series of acquisitions made by GSV Ventures and WestBridge Capital-backed Physics Wallah since 2022. Over the period, it has bought companies such as Knowledge Planet, iNeuron, Altis Vortex, PrepOnline and FreeCo.