Just Rs 400 Cr set aside for schools over 18 months, test prep is main business: PW’s CFO Amit Sachdeva

After reporting a strong Q3 FY26 with revenue rising 34% year-on-year to Rs 1,082 crore and a PAT of Rs 102 crore despite one-time expenses, PhysicsWallah aka PW says its growth story is far from over. The company has also turned profitable for the nine-month period, crossing its full FY25 revenue within the first three quarters of the current fiscal.

In an interaction with Entrackr, PW CFO Amit Sachdeva speaks about the muted market reaction to the results, the headroom for further expansion, and the company’s push into state boards and K-12 school partnerships. He explains why these bets could widen PW’s reach while keeping test prep at the core of its strategy. Edited excerpts:

Entrackr: Your Q3 results have generated quite a bit of interest. Despite such strong financial performance, markets have not reacted favourably. What are your thoughts on this?

Amit: This was the strongest quarter for PW and can provide context to our Q3 and full year numbers. Our revenue growth remained robust in Q3 FY26, with 34% revenue increase YoY, to 1082 crore. Despite a one-time expense of Rs 30 crore, we had a PAT positive quarter at Rs 102 crore. We also had a very positive 9 month FY26 having surpassed the full FY25 revenue within these nine months with the revenue reaching Rs 3000 crore. 9 month FY26 was also PAT positive at Rs 45 crore even after a one-time expense of Rs 37 crore. 

Why did we see such numbers? Because students continue to bestow their faith in us. Our growth is being driven by paid student enrollment, which has increased 21% YoY to 4.4 million. 

Entrackr: The numbers do look good but are they too good? Is there any headroom left for growth?

Amit: We will teach 5 million paid students in the current academic year. Compared to the overall test prep market in India, the current penetration is less than 2%, showing immense headroom for growth. In fact in this quarter, we have reported three new categories - NEET PG, IIT JAM, CLAT - that have done more than Rs 10 crore in collections annually. As far as headroom for growth goes, the company announced new initiatives like PW Talks, an AI-powered English speaking app that helps learners build fluency, confidence, and accuracy through daily conversations and real-time feedback, like having a personal English coach.

We also launched PW OTT - distraction-free YouTube alternative tailored for students — a focused learning environment without noise.

Entrackr: There is rising criticism around online learning, that getting sign-ups is easy but learner engagement and course completion is tough. Have you noticed similar fatigue amongst students on your platform?

Amit: We see a daily average user count of over 3.4 million on PW platforms while we have over 134 million total subscribers across social media. It is one of the highest in terms of student count. This isn’t the only area where we have aced the game. We also are one of the highest in terms of engagement with 106 minutes being our average engagement time. 

Now let me answer how we are solving the fatigue. We are a tech-enabled educational platform that makes very heavy investment in upgrading technology, seamless app experience and investing in innovation to keep learning engaging. Combine that with our teachers who are not only academically superior but make the entire learning energetic and engaging for our learners keeping them hooked. And engagement numbers and high NPS scores speak for themselves.

Entrackr: The company has recently entered the state boards business. Linguistic barrier, cultural resonance and local coaching influence - how does PW plan to overcome all this at once?

Amit: Our state boards business has already seen strong early traction with more than 2 lakh enrollments in its first year. We have launched paid courses in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttar Pradesh. The TAM for these six states is 2.5 crores compared to the all India state Board TAM of 5 crore students. To give you some perspective, in the UP state board whose Class 10 topper was a PW student this year, around 2.5 million students appeared for the exams. CBSE Class 10 saw 2.3 million students across India. That is the size of markets we open up when we enter state boards.

And about local coaching influence, it is not really a concern because all these players are unorganised and operating at small scale.

Entrackr: PW was built as the 'anti-establishment' savior of the poor student, but its move into K-12 schooling looks like a classic 'vertical integration' trap. Isn’t it trying to monopolise students' time - 8hrs in school and then 4hrs test-prep? How big can this segment become for PW?

Amit: We plan to make a few select investments in K-12 education through our wholly owned subsidiary PenPencil. Towards this purpose we have set aside Rs 400 crore for such acquisitions to be done over the next 12-18 months.We believe that test prep and K12 are not against each other but work in tandem for the benefits of students.

Our association with Tender Heart is one such example that puts us in a position to partner with a quality K-12 institution. We would like to reaffirm that our Test Prep offerings, both online and offline, will continue to drive our growth over the years. The  K-12 TAM is bigger than Test Prep. For every student in Test prep, there are four students in K-12. Students in the K-12 segment eventually fuel test prep and such partnerships make the journey seamless for students. Our focus will continue to drive new categories in Online business and measured expansion in offline centres.