On March 20, PhysicsWallah (PW), the only profitable edtech unicorn in India, announced that it had acquired Knowledge Planet, a company based in the United Arab Emirates, for an unknown sum. This was the acquisition’s first overseas partner.
The company had previously purchased Indian businesses like the online coaching platform for medical entrance exams PrepOnline, the publisher of exam prep books Altis Vortex, the startup for resource management and question solving FreeCo, and the upskilling startup iNeuron.ai.
According to a statement from PW, Knowledge Planet will gain from PW’s tech stack to improve its online and hybrid offerings while PW will use Knowledge Planet’s school relationship framework to reach students in the UAE.
PW stated that it will provide SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) preparation sessions for Middle Eastern kids who plan to study overseas.
The business anticipates that the acquisition will open up a $250 million market for offline exam preparation for the region’s Indian diaspora’s National Eligibility Cumulative Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).
“We are thrilled to announce the UAE as the location of our very first overseas acquisition. Knowledge Planet, the most reputable test preparation network, is the ideal brand to support our entry into this attractive market. It has 13 centers operating around the Middle East and a well-established school cooperation model. Alakh Pandey, the CEO and founder of PhysicsWallah, said, “This is a significant turning point in PW’s journey, and we are thrilled to welcome students from this area into the PW family.
Knowledge World, founded in 2011 by Monika Oli and Sachin Bharti Gupta, offers instruction and test preparation for important competitive exams including JEE and NEET.
PW claimed that by partnering with Knowledge Planet, it will be able to broaden the appeal of its current batch products. PW also stated that it plans to expand offline into nations like Egypt and Turkey in addition to the Middle East.
“We share Alakh Pandey’s aim for providing affordable, high-quality education throughout the Middle East. The exam preparation market in the UAE will benefit greatly from our combined knowledge, according to Gupta, who is also the CEO of Knowledge Planet.
The unicorn company, which is sponsored by GSV Ventures, declared a net profit of Rs 97.8 crore for FY22, up roughly 14 times from its profit of Rs 6.93 crore for FY21, according to the document. According to the record, its operational revenue increased by over ten times during that time, from Rs 24.6 crore in FY21 to Rs 232.5 crore. For the year ended March 2022, PhysicsWallah reported total revenue of Rs 234.1 crore on a stand-alone basis.
Thanks to a 21-fold increase in employee benefit expenditures to Rs 42.18 crore during FY22, PhysicsWallah’s overall expenses increased seven times to Rs 103.2 crore.
PhyiscsWallah began operations in June 2020, and FY22 was the company’s first full year of business. With a valuation of $1.1 billion, the company had earlier this year raised $100 million from GSV Ventures and WestBridge Capital.
