Alakh Pandey was an engineering student in a top college in Kanpur. He, however, dropped out of college in the third year.
PhysicsWallah is the only ed-tech unicorn in India that is profitable. The company's revenue was Rs 780 crore last financial year which is over 300 percent its FY22 figure (Rs 233 crore). The company is targeting a revenue of Rs 2500 crore for the current fiscal. The company raised 100 million dollars last year at a valuation of 1.1 billion dollars (Rs 9,000 crore). It was the 101st company that acquired the unicorn status. The company was founded by Alakh Pandey, an engineering dropout and an ex-tuition teacher and YouTuber.
Pandey began his entrepreneurial journey with a YouTube channel with the same name. He started the channel in 2014. Years later, an ed-tech company tried to cash in on his popularity and offered a salary of Rs 40 crore per year. To everyone's surprise, he declined the offer. The office was given by Unacademy.
He built his own firm with the name PhysicsWallah. The company's revenue had grown 900 percent in the year 2021-2022.
Alakh Pandey was an engineering student in a top college in Kanpur. He, however, dropped out of college in the third year. He joined Softways Coaching Institute, Allahabad. He started teaching physics at a coaching institute in his home town Allahabad.
His first salary was Rs 5000.
He pulled a trick to engage the students at a coaching institute. He peppered the concept of teaching with frequent jokes. He once told Forbes in an interview that apart from being good at your subject, a teacher has to be loud, funny, sarcastic and strict.
Due to his animated way of teaching, students started to like him. In the year 2016, he launched his YouTube channel.
He started to gain popularity in tier 2 and tier 2 cities. He also started motivating students. Some of his methods also raised eyebrows but he kept at it.
His YouTube channel became a massive hit. His following skyrocketed from 4000 in 2017 to 2.2 million in 2019. He opened a company in 2020 with his co-founder Pratik Maheshwari. He launched an annual prep package for Class 12 students for Rs 999. The mobile application crashed.
By 2020, Pandey had gotten 42 lakh subscribers on YouTube. A competitor offered him Rs 75 crore for a 10 percent stake. He declined. Then they reportedly tried to poach his teachers with salary offers worth crores. Several star teachers left the company. He brought low cost content -- a strategy that became successful. In June 2022, he raised 100 million dollars (Rs 750 crore) at a valuation of 1.1 billion dollars. Now it is the only unicorn in the ed-tech space that is profitable.
Pandey's early life was challenging. He started taking tuitions in Class 8. His father, a contractor, had sold his house and invested the money in businesses that later failed.
He couldn't crack IIT as he couldn't prepare properly in the absence of money. Alakh Pandey and his co-founder Prateek Maheshwari's net worth -- according to Hurun -- was Rs 4000 crore each.
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 "Alakh Pandey was a tuition teacher whose first salary was Rs 5000. (File)")
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