Prateek Maheshwari co-founded Physics Wallah with Alakh Pandey in 2020, helping transform a YouTube education channel into one of India's fastest-growing edtech companies.
Discover how Prateek Maheshwari partnered with Alakh Pandey to transform Physics Wallah from a popular YouTube channel into one of India’s fastest-growing and most profitable edtech companies.
Written by TFN Research Desk | covering startups, technology, venture capital, and business strategy.
Table of Contents
- Who is Prateek Maheshwari?
- Early Life and Education
- Career Before Physics Wallah
- How Physics Wallah Started
- Funding History
- Revenue Growth and Recent Challenges
- Public Recognition
- Physics Wallah vs Competitors
- Investor Perspective
- Founder Timeline
- Key Takeaways
- FAQs
- Sources
Who is Prateek Maheshwari?
Prateek Maheshwari co-founded Physics Wallah with Alakh Pandey in 2020, serving as the technical and operational force behind a YouTube channel that grew into a publicly listed edtech company. An IIT (BHU) Varanasi mechanical engineering graduate, he had already built and run several ventures before Physics Wallah, and today he’s known as the architect of one of India’s few profitable edtech unicorns.
Early Life and Education
Maheshwari was born around 1993 in Rajasthan. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT (BHU), Varanasi, giving him a technical foundation unusual among edtech founders, most of whom come from pure software or business backgrounds. Not publicly disclosed is detail on his schooling or family background beyond his Rajasthan roots.
Career Before Physics Wallah
Before joining Alakh Pandey, Maheshwari built a string of ventures across food tech and SaaS, including PenPencil, Edu4All, Moon2Noon, and Night Panda. None reached the scale of Physics Wallah, but they gave him roughly 14 to 17 years of entrepreneurial experience in operations management and lean scaling, skills that proved directly transferable when he took charge of turning a teaching channel into a functioning app.
How Physics Wallah Started
Alakh Pandey had built a following of over 2 million YouTube subscribers teaching physics for JEE and NEET by 2019, all without spending on marketing. In 2020, Maheshwari partnered with him to convert that audience into a company, building the Physics Wallah app while Pandey stayed focused on teaching and content. The early proof point was pricing: PW charged a fraction of what Unacademy, Vedantu, or coaching institutes charged, and profitability came almost immediately because the model relied on Pandey’s organic reach rather than expensive customer acquisition.
Funding History
| Round | Year | Amount | Lead Investor(s) |
| Series A | June 2022 | $100 million | WestBridge Capital, GSV Ventures |
| Series B | Sept 2024 | $210 million | Hornbill Capital |
| IPO | Nov 2025 | Rs 3,480 crore (~$360 million) | Public markets (NSE listing) |
Physics Wallah raised its first institutional round only in 2022, unusually late for a company already profitable, reaching unicorn status at a $1.1 billion valuation. The September 2024 round pushed valuation to $2.8 billion, and the company went public in November 2025 via a Rs 3,480 crore IPO.
Revenue Growth and Recent Challenges
| Fiscal Year | Revenue | Net Profit/Loss |
| FY23 | Rs 772-780 crore | Profit (unconfirmed precise figure) |
| FY24 | Rs 1,940.7 crore | Loss of Rs 1,130 crore (largely non-cash) |
| FY25 | Rs 2,887 crore | Not publicly disclosed |
Why this happened: The FY24 loss looks alarming next to earlier profitable years, but roughly Rs 756 crore of it came from non-cash CCPS accounting adjustments tied to the funding round, leaving a real cash loss closer to Rs 375 crore. Revenue growth has increasingly come from acquisitions like iNeuron and Xylem Learning rather than purely organic expansion, a pattern Maheshwari has defended as disciplined, unlike the debt-fuelled acquisitions blamed for Byju’s collapse.
Public Recognition
Maheshwari has been profiled by Fortune India as the “quiet force” behind Physics Wallah’s rise and has spoken at global platforms including the ASU GSV Summit. He and Pandey both joined the billionaire club ahead of the November 2025 IPO, according to Moneycontrol.
Physics Wallah vs Competitors
| Brand | Founded | Latest Revenue | Positioning |
| Physics Wallah | 2020 | Rs 2,887 crore (FY25) | Affordable, YouTube-first test prep, now hybrid offline-online |
| Unacademy | 2015 | Rs 988.4 crore (FY24) | Live learning, shifting toward offline |
| BYJU’S | 2011 | Not publicly disclosed (insolvency) | Once India’s largest edtech decacorn |
Physics Wallah has overtaken older, better-funded rivals like Unacademy on revenue by keeping costs low and pricing aggressively, though its rising losses and acquisition-driven growth now draw the same scrutiny once aimed at Byju’s.
Investor Perspective
Maheshwari’s qualification came from years of smaller-scale entrepreneurial failures that taught him operational discipline before he had Pandey’s audience to work with. His strength lies in balancing an outsized YouTube following with a lean cost structure, though rising faculty attrition, reportedly over 40% in FY24, and increasing reliance on acquisitions for growth are real risks. If Physics Wallah can integrate its acquisitions cleanly and stabilise its teacher base post-IPO, it has a credible shot at sustained profitability that most Indian edtech peers have failed to achieve.
Founder Timeline
- 2020 — Co-founds Physics Wallah with Alakh Pandey
- 2022 — Raises $100 million Series A; reaches unicorn status at $1.1 billion
- 2023 — Physics Wallah expands to 67 offline centres across 34 cities
- 2024 — Raises $210 million Series B at $2.8 billion valuation
- 2025 (Nov) — Physics Wallah lists on NSE via Rs 3,480 crore IPO
- 2026 — Invests personally in edtech startup Newton School
Key Takeaways
- Maheshwari’s years of smaller failed ventures gave him the operational grounding to scale Pandey’s audience efficiently.
- Physics Wallah’s late first funding round, after already being profitable, is a rare pattern among Indian startups.
- Keeping prices low while staying profitable let PW undercut better-funded rivals like Unacademy and Byju’s.
- Rising losses and heavy reliance on acquisitions for FY25 growth mirror early warning signs seen at Byju’s.
- Going public in 2025 puts Physics Wallah’s numbers under far more scrutiny than its earlier private years.
FAQs
Who founded Physics Wallah?
Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, in 2020, building on Pandey’s YouTube channel started in 2016.
Where did Maheshwari study?
IIT (BHU), Varanasi, Mechanical Engineering.
How much funding has Physics Wallah raised?
$100 million in 2022 and $210 million in 2024, followed by a Rs 3,480 crore IPO in November 2025.
Is Physics Wallah profitable?
It was profitable in earlier years but posted a Rs 1,130 crore loss in FY24, largely from non-cash accounting adjustments.
What is Maheshwari’s net worth?
Estimates vary widely, from roughly Rs 4,000 crore to over Rs 14,000 crore; no single official figure is confirmed.
What did Maheshwari do before Physics Wallah?
Founded several ventures including PenPencil, Moon2Noon, and Night Panda across food tech and SaaS.
Is Physics Wallah publicly listed?
Yes, it listed on the NSE in November 2025 via a Rs 3,480 crore IPO.
What makes Physics Wallah different from Unacademy?
Lower pricing and profitability from early on, built on Pandey’s organic YouTube reach rather than paid acquisition.
Sources
- The Quiet Genius Behind Physics Wallah’s $3.7 Billion Rise — StartupTalky
- Physics Wallah – Wikipedia
- Prateek Maheshwari – Crunchbase Person Profile
- About Us – Physics Wallah
- Is Physics Wallah Will Be The Next Byju’s? — Inventiva
- Physics Wallah to cross Rs 2,400 cr in revenue in FY24 — Business Standard
- Physics Wallah vs Byju’s vs Unacademy 2025 — Strategy Boffins
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