PhysicsWallah Acquires Edtech Startup FreeCo To Enhance Learning Solutions

Edtech platform PhysicsWallah on Wednesday (August 17) announced the acquisition of another edtech startup FreeCo. However, it didn’t disclose the financial details of the deal.

The acquisition will enable PhysicsWallah to strengthen its existing services and enhance the learning experience for students. Both teams will work together in domains such as content library, faculty management and efficient utilisation of resources across two startups. 

PhysicsWallah will also deploy FreeCo team’s experience to streamline its current doubt-solving offerings and upgrade its existing set of products and services.

“With FreeCo’s expertise in the ed-tech space, we are confident in innovating our existing learning pedagogies and offering enhanced learning solutions to aspirants. We aim to simplify learning for students using advanced tools and technologies, making it more accessible and learner-oriented,” PhysicsWallah CEO and cofounder Alakh Pandey said.

As part of the deal, PhysicsWallah will onboard 15 employees of FreeCo on its rolls. 

Founded in 2020 by Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, PhysicsWallah primarily targets students preparing for competitive exams such as NEET and JEE. It has also forayed into the offline space with the launch of ‘PW Vidyapeeths’ across six locations including Kota and Delhi.

Besides, the unicorn also operates hybrid classes in 22 cities across India, covering 10 Lakh students. PhysicsWallah aims to reach more than 250 Mn students by 2025. 

This is PhysicsWallah’s first acquisition since its mega $100 Mn fundraise in June this year. It was this fundraise that led the startup into the unicorn club, making it the 101st startup to do so. 

On the other hand, FreeCo was founded in 2020 by Prashant Soni and Nikhil Chaudhary. It is a doubt-solving and resource management startup that caters to both B2B and B2C clients. It offers content services, online tutoring, pen tab video solutions, among other services.

The Jaipur-based startup claims to have worked with 28 B2B clients including big edtech firms such as BYJU’S, Unacademy, Brainly, and Doubtnut. 

Even as India boasts of six unicorns in the edtech space, PhysicsWallah is the online profitable unicorn, posting a profit of INR 6.92 Cr in financial year 2020-21 (FY21) and generating a revenue of INR 350 Cr in FY22.

Meanwhile, the edtech space continues to be gripped by the purported funding winter. Amid apprehensions of recession and tightening monetary policies, edtech space has been the worst hit. 

While two edtech startups – Crejo and Udayy – shut shop in 2022, nine edtech companies, including Unacademy, Vedantu, have laid off almost 4,100 employees so far in the year.

According to an Inc42 report, the Indian edtech sector is anticipated to reach a market size of $10.4 Bn by 2025.