The digital courses will be sold along with relevant books, they said.
Its plan to enter the K-12 segment comes at a time when funding has slowed down in the edtech sector, with investors becoming cautious as demand for online courses has taken a hit after the reopening of schools and offline coaching centres.
ET had reported earlier this month that startups offering online skilling courses have emerged as a silver lining in edtech, amid the ongoing downturn in the K-12 and test preparation verticals.
A person in the know of the plans said the Noida-based company is designing science and maths study material for Grade 4-10, and is currently experimenting to solve the challenges of price points and customer acquisition — something that edtech startups have been grappling with after the pandemic-induced demand for their courses started receding.
PhysicsWallah plans to market its courses through physical bookstores and stationery shops to reduce the marketing overheads, one of the people said. “The product is likely to be a vernacular offering with a Hinglish (Hindi+English) mode of delivery. Byju’s products are very heavy on animation, which is expensive. The PhysicsWallah product is based on various art-forms and storytelling,” the person said. High product prices warrant a strong marketing push and subsequent overheads which the company is trying to keep at a minimum, he said.
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The company did not respond to a request for a comment.“The challenges in the K-12 category are price points, customer acquisitions, which the company needs to solve. The company is experimenting with some products that are priced at the points of curriculum books,” the person said. “The idea is essentially to create a pull instead of pushing heavily through marketing.”
On whether the launch of a potential K-12 product made sense given the current scenario where schools have reopened, the person said the company saw a gap in school learning and wants to supplement what is taught in schools.
“These are self-paced courses to supplement the school learning. Even in schools, there is a gap between the demand and supply of good teachers, especially in the tier-2, tier-3 cities,” the person added.
While PhysicsWallah is attempting to build the K-12 product on its own, it has also shown inclination to enter other segments and fill potential gaps inorganically.
Last month, ET reported citing PhysicsWallah cofounder Maheshwari that the company was chalking up plans to increase allocation for mergers and acquisitions to $100 million from the current $50 million with an aim to acquire startups operating in various test-prep segments, in addition to augmenting its geographical presence.
The company recently acquired a UAE-based K-12 online and offline learning startup, Knowledge Planet, that offers test-prep products targeted at NRIs in the Gulf region. It has also acquired companies including iNeuron, Altis Vortex, PrepOnline and FreeCo.
Other edtech startups including Byju’s, Unacademy and Vedantu have witnessed problems with their K-12 models, and are recalibrating their businesses to focus more on other, profitable segments. Together, these three companies have laid off more than 6,000 people over the last year.
PhysicsWallah, founded by Alakh Pandey and Maheshwari, gained unicorn status last year when it raised $100 million in its maiden round of funding from WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures with a valuation of more than $1.1 billion. For the financial year through March 2022, it reported standalone operating revenue of Rs 232.48 crore, a nine-fold increase from the previous year. Net profit for the last fiscal year increased to Rs 97.8 crore from Rs 6.93 crore