Prateek Maheshwari Net Worth: Co-Founder of Physics Wallah

Prateek Maheshwari is the Co-Founder of Physics Wallah (PW), the leading EdTech platform in India, and Co-Chair of the India EdTech Consortium. He founded PW with Alakh Pandey in 2020 and visualized a change in India’s education system. With over 14 years of experience in technology-driven startups, he has been instrumental in the growth of PW while making nine strategic achievements and entering into key partnerships. Prateek envisions PW to be one of the largest providers of highly affordable and quality education. He is deeply involved in compassion towards availability of education at affordable prices.

Role of Prateek Maheshwari in PW:

Prateek Maheshwari is an experienced person in EdTech and the Food &Beverage industry. As alumni of IIT and with a strong entrepreneurial background, his skill set covers various domains such as Operations Management, Entrepreneurship, and Lean Manufacturing. He started companies like PenPencil and Night Panda. After series of conversations, Alakh Pandey realized that Prateek had the potential to become their technological bone structure and Prateek took his popular YouTube channel to become a full-fledged EdTech application.

At PW, founder and CEO Alakh Pandey drives all educational and branding efforts, while Prateek charts out product development and technology to force more efficiency in operations. PW has raised $100 million in funding to date. In a short span of time, PW has scaled up to a valuation of $1.1 billion in stiff competition with established players like Byju’s and Unacademy. Such success has pushed up the combined wealth of Prateek and Pandey to Rs 4000 crore. PW revenue surged from Rs 234 crores in FY22 to Rs 780 crores in FY23 targeting over Rs 2400 crores in FY24.

Growth of PW:

PW has now expanded to 28 categories, further consolidating its leadership position across categories such as UPSC, commerce, GATE, government exams, and skills development. The online student base increased to 2.5 times, and the offline enrollment surged to 60,000, while growing by 5.5 times by this year. The expansion and acquisition fronts have also seen quite a few encouraging developments. A strategic partnership will see entry into the South Indian market in Kerala with Xylem. Besides, PW is coming up with a new vertical on children’s books targeted at ages 2-6, which is likely to attract a new audience into PW’s ecosystem and create long-term value.

Market Position and Competitive Landscape:

Among the competitors in educational technology sectors such as BYJU’S, stage founded in 2011 and Series F stage; Unacademy, founded in 2015 and Series H stage; Ruangguru, launched in 2014 and Series C stage indicating the high level of competition in ed-tech Physics Wallah occupies a leading position across the sector over1,077 competitors. Of these, 89 have received funding and 28 have exited; cumulatively, they raised more than $15.4 billion through 358 funding rounds, powered by 1,342 investors, five unicorns, six publicly traded companies, and 22 firms that have been acquired.

Outlook for PW in 2024:

The outlook for PW in 2024 is a strategic expansion of their offline tech-enabled Vidyapeeth Centre from the current count of 64 to a total of 100. Last year, they were able to successfully launch 50 offline centers. Their target for the year 2024 includes the addition of 200,000 paid learners and 3 to 4 million learners focusing on up skilling. They are also developing Alakh AI, a state-of-the-art AI study companion that transcends language barriers. It aims to bridge the gap of doubts that students face at a great speed and thus provide an enriching experience in classrooms. This flexible approach to teaching brings a change to ensure widespread access to first-class education. It’s key to focus on improving the skills of young people across the board. This will boost their job prospects and help fill skill gaps, which is vital for the growth of India’s economy.