PhysicsWallah Makes Two New Acquisitions To Bolster NEET Prep, Study Materials Verticals

India’s latest edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah (PW) has completed the acquisitions of two startups, PrepOnline and Altis Vortex. The edtech unicorn has not disclosed the value of the transactions.

PrepOnline and Altis Vortex have the same founding team: Vivek Gaur and Manish Kumar. Gaur would join PW as its chief growth officer as part of the acquihires.

PrepOnline is an online learning platform which helps students prepare for the all-India pre-medical exam, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Common University Entrance Test (CUET). 

This is PhysicsWallah’s third acquihire since becoming a unicorn back in June this year, having acquired edtech startup FreeCo. in August. 

Altis Vortex publishes exam preparation books for competitive exams in India. So far, it has published more than 150 books covering exams such as the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC), NEET, and CUET, among others.

With PrepOnline, PW seeks to strengthen its presence in pre-medical test prep. With Altis Vortex, the edtech unicorn aims to bolster its book delivery and study materials verticals.

Alakh Pandey, founder and CEO, PhysicsWallah, said, “We are delighted to bring PrepOnline and Altis Vortex to our PW family. We are confident that their expertise and dedication will make quality education more accessible and affordable for students preparing for government jobs. We look forward to this association and hope to provide world-class education content to our users.”

PW’s Renewed Positioning

PW is positioning itself to become an affordable online bookstore for its test prep audience, with plans to launch its bookstore after Diwali, added Maheshwari.

The edtech unicorn is looking to strengthen its geographical presence and leadership team and is therefore expanding inorganically via acquisitions. PW might acquire more startups yet, as it looks to expand into newer test prep domains such as banking exams, Common Admission Test (CAT) and others, according to Maheshwari.

Founded in 2020 by educator-turned-entrepreneur Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, PhysicsWallah is a test prep edtech startup. PW became a unicorn in June 2022 after raising $100 Mn in a Series A funding round from Westbridge and GSV Ventures at a post-money valuation of $1.1 Bn.

It became the seventh edtech unicorn, following in the footsteps of the likes of BYJU’S, Unacademy, Vedantu and others. However, PW is the only profitable edtech startup, being profitable since its inception in 2020. PhysicsWallah posted profits of INR 6.92 Cr in FY21, registering INR 24.6 Cr in revenue.

Recently, the edtech unicorn also forayed into the offline test prep segment, launching PW Vidyapeeth, in Kota days after turning unicorn in June.