In the contemporary world, a new learning system has been developed thanks to technological advancement and readily available technology. They have modernized our educational system and made learning fun, straightforward, and accessible. The system is changing so quickly that students may soon be able to learn from anywhere at any time without having to lug around books.

The notable Covid-19 pandemic has served as a test case for this modification. It accelerated the process of learning improvement. The past few years have seen a large number of EdTech firms launch. These startups can succeed with flawless execution and top-notch content.

One of the numerous enterprises that thrived during the pandemic is Physics Wallah (PW). The founder’s love of teaching drove her to launch a YouTube channel, which is now India’s 101st unicorn. It’s incredibly motivating to read about Physics Wallah and its founder, Alakh Pandey. The article that follows describes their development, growth, financial struggles, and how they overcome these obstacles to become a unicorn.

What is Physics Wallah?

Alakh Pandey launched the edtech business Physics Wallah in 2014. It is an online learning platform that provides high-quality educational opportunities at a reasonable price. For kids in grades 6 through 12, this startup offers lectures and solutions on various topics for the JEE, NEET, and other entrance exams.

Live and recorded lectures, question-and-answer sessions, organised materials, and examinations assist students in assessing their progress using Physics Wallah.

As of today, Physics Wallah, which began as a YouTube channel, has mentored over 6 million students and has over 13,700 video lectures available on its platform. Physics Wallah has established a solid reputation among thousands of students by providing free and paid batches.

It All Began With A Single Man’s Dream

Middle-class Hindu Brahmins raised Alakh in Prayagraj; they all practice Hinduism and revere Hindu gods. Satish Pandey is Alakh Pandey’s father, and in addition to contracting, he also ran a variety of other enterprises. Rajat Pandey, Alakh Sir’s mother, had worked as a teacher at Prayagraj’s Vishnu Bhagwan Public School. In addition to her parents, she has a younger sister named Aditi Pandey, who works for an IT firm. Alakh Sir initially had to deal with a lot of financial issues. Before this, he owned a home in Prayagraj’s South Malaka but owing to financial difficulties, and it had to be sold.

At that time, Satish Pandey, his father, attempted to work as a contractor for other companies but was unsuccessful. Alakh Sir’s family incurred significant debt in high and intermediate school, which he later paid off through coaching and teaching.

After selling the home, he and his family spent a considerable amount of time living in rented houses in the Kareli, Rajrooppur, and Kalindipuram regions. He is the founder and CEO of Physics Wallah. On October 2, 1991, he was born in South Malaka, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Since his school days, Pandey has always had a passion for teaching. He attempted to enter the IIT but failed the admission test. Pandey began his work as a physics teacher in a coaching institute despite dropping out of college. He aimed to provide pupils with the best educational opportunity at a reasonable price.

Indian physics instructor Alakh Pandey is renowned for his engaging teaching methods. In addition, he founded the Edtech business Physics Wallah, which has grown to be India’s 101st unicorn startup. He finished his elementary school education at Bishop Johnson School. To get through his early financial difficulties, Alakh began tutoring students as early as the eighth grade. He used to train class IV students back when he was in eighth grade. He began instructing the 9th graders in the eleventh.

He always believed in working hard. Therefore he maintained his education while paying tuition. He received a 93% on his high school board exam, and after passing the class XII exam in 2010, he began preparing for engineering. However, he ran into difficulties because of his family’s financial situation. He did well in the UPSEE entrance exam, which allowed him to enroll in the Harcourt Butler Technical Institute’s (HBTI) engineering program in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He registered for HBTI Kanpur’s Mechanical B.Tech program.

By earning 80 percent in Physics during his first year of B.Tech, he led his entire college. In the second year of his B.Tech., he began teaching coaching to meet his demands in college. His enthusiasm for coaching grew by the third year, and his college studies drove him insane. He realised that the research being done at the institute is not very useful in actual life.

“Education for all, regardless of the socio-economic situation,” is Alakh Pandey’s objective. He aims to make education accessible to all pupils. He thinks that anything and everything can be changed via knowledge. This is the guiding principle of Alakh Pandey and Physics Wallah.

From A Vision, Physics Wallah Was Born

He quit his studies in his last year of the B.Tech. Program and returned to Prayagraj. He began instructing on YouTube in 2014. He first offered both online and offline coaching.

In 2014–15, He attempted to upload videos about class 12th on YouTube, but it was unsuccessful. Then, in 2017, when movies of class 10 were posted, the kids appreciated them. He first received more than 10,000 followers when he started making films, mainly for students of the ICSE board. A friend’s recommendation to monetise the channel led to the beginning of income from YouTube. He eventually stopped coaching clients face-to-face and began online teaching. As a result, Alakh Pandey’s efforts propelled him from the ground to the sky in just six years.

The students adore Alakh’s teaching methodology. His weak understanding of physics and Alakh Sir’s excellent explanations make him popular with medical students. His lectures primarily draw from NCERT textbooks. Even the school and coaching teacher frequently suggests that the kids watch Alakh sir’s videos because of how well he teaches the little physics and chemistry concepts and formulas.

The inability of students to directly ask you questions, in Alakh’s opinion, is the major negative of online tutoring. Therefore, while creating the movie, keep in mind that not even the slightest doubt should exist in the sense of the learner regarding the subject of the film.

The station gradually gained more viewers till it reached 2 million in 2019. The need for Physics Wallah arose as the nation went under lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Alakh Pandey decided to broaden his platform and began developing an app for online courses. Under PW Pathshala, the firm also offers students offline and online classes. Today, Physics Wallah has taught more than 60 lakh pupils. This startup employs 1,500 people, of which 300 are teachers, across 16 PW Pathshala centres. It attempts to give pupils a unique possible learning environment.

According to news dated June 20, 2022, Physics Wallah entered the offline learning market when it opened its first offline learning facility, PW Vidyapeeth, in Kota, Rajasthan. Kota is renowned for having coaching facilities for the academic preparation of students studying medicine and engineering.

The offline location of PhysicsWallah is similarly constructed and will be accepting applications from 11th and 12th graders who want to study for the JEE and NEET exams. The unicorn edtech business stated that each class would have a 125:1 student-to-teacher ratio.

Rejected over 75 crores

The Physics Wallah app collapsed owing to high usage during its debut in May 2020. This outage was caused by an unexpected surge of more than 2 lakh pupils using the app. It took weeks for the technical issue to be fixed as the website traffic remained. Alakh Pandey was concerned that the students could feel taken advantage of because they had paid for the sessions.

However, the students returned after everything was fixed because they trusted him because of the reputation he had built over the years.

The following issue arose in 2021 when the competitors started criticising the business. Alakh Pandey has promised Rs 75 crore by Unacademy, but he turned it down immediately. Then the competition began stealing PW employees, and many quit the company quickly. Following Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu, and a few other EdTech companies, Pandey returned strong with the students’ help and his never-say-die attitude, leading the company to Unicorn status.

Helping Students Across The World

Students around the world, not only those in this country, respect Alakh Sir’s teaching methods. Many pupils in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Dubai watch his movies in addition to the nation. In one of his Bengali interviews, a Bangladeshi high performer also went by the moniker Alakh sir. Alakh Pandey Sir, who founded his own business after starting a YouTube channel called Physics Wallah, has achieved the pinnacle of success today due to his perseverance. Alakh Sir is particularly concerned about the pupils who cannot spend more on their academics despite being deserving after initially experiencing financial difficulties.

He pays for that student’s entire education and supports him in building a better future. Shortly, his company Physics Wallah (PW), plans to offer teaching materials in nine different languages. His business, PW, is getting ready to connect with pupils who speak Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Gujarati, Malayalam, and Kannada. By 2025, the corporation hopes to link more than 2.5 billion kids to its platform by expanding to every corner of the nation. In addition, Alakh Pandey’s PW team is very involved in social activity.

Physics Wallah’s Growth is Unstoppable

Physics Wallah is a part of the EdTech sector. One may pinpoint the last ten years as the growth period for the EdTech sector in India. Their expansion in recent years has been far too quick. Their accumulation in recent years has been far too rapid. According to statistics, 4,450 new EdTech startups in the nation have existed between 2014 and 2019. In 2020, it was predicted that the EdTech market would be worth $750 million. This may soar to a stunning $4 billion in the following five years.

In the last ten years, funding and other investments into these firms have multiplied 32 times. In the long run, the EdTech sector will take the role of offline education. But according to academics and venture capitalists, the omnichannel approach to education (both online and offline) will reign supreme for many years.