PhysicsWallah's Hybrid Bet, Ola Electric’s Sorrows, and OYO Parent Rebrands

When India’s edtech bubble burst, thousands of startups collapsed under the weight of unsustainable growth models. BYJU’S went from a $22-billion darling to a cautionary tale, Unacademy bled cash and cut deep, and the whole sector acquired a credibility problem. Physicswallah (PW) is the outlier that didn’t blink, largely because it never bought the “growth at any cost” script in the first place. In FY22, it posted ₹232.47 crore in operating revenue and ₹97.8 crore profit - an anomaly when peers were setting money on fire - then scaled to ₹771.76 crore in FY23 and ₹1,940.4 crore in FY24 even as statutory losses widened on one-time, non-cash items tied to expansion. The internal story is clearer in FY25: revenue touching ~₹3,000 crore and a positive adjusted operating profit of ₹432 crore, evidence that the core engine mints money even when accounting noise clouds the headline PAT.

PW’s real contrarian bet was to treat the return to classrooms as a tailwind, not a threat. With Vidyapeeth, it built a physical spine under a digital skin. With over 200 centers in FY25 versus 120 in FY24, the brand relationship forged on YouTube and the app translated into higher-yield, in-person cohorts. The math shows why this mattered: in FY25, offline and hybrid contributed 46.8% of income, or ₹1,351.9 crore, despite serving a far smaller base - about 0.33 million students offline against 4.13 million paying online - proving that per-student revenue (and therefore contribution) is structurally richer in center-led formats. That blend insulated PW when the pure-play online demand normalized and created a durable second leg of growth.

Vidyapeeth's success shows that spending less and being smarter with your resources can be more effective than simply spending more. The company’s “compassionate pricing” sits at roughly one-tenth of market rates in key courses, but the model is viable because CAC is community-led, not celebrity-led, and marketing has stayed under 10% of revenue - an inversion of the edtech 1.0 playbook where ad spend routinely outpaced sales. The discipline here is not cosmetic; it’s cultural, and it explains how PW could be profitable early without serial fundraises.

Capital strategy is part of that discipline. PW became a unicorn off a single $100 million round in 2022, later adding a $210 million Series B while founders still hold ~83.9% - a structure that forced operating prudence and protected the mission from investor-driven acquisition sprees and burn cycles that felled rivals. Contrast that with BYJU’S $4.45 billion across 27 rounds; what looked like firepower turned into gravity when the funding winter arrived.

There are global rhymes. PW’s product-led, community-first loop looks closer to Duolingo’s obsessive iteration and daily habit formation than to the sales-heavy funnels of Coursera or Udemy, which skew enterprise and university partnerships rather than direct K-12/test-prep relationships. The implication is simple: when the product is the growth team, paid reach becomes optional, not existential.

None of this erases execution risk. Rapid offline expansion creates center-by-center variability; the same trust that built the brand can fray if local quality slips, and the moat here is reputation, not real estate. Regulation, still patchwork in edtech, is also catching up - content scrutiny and consumer-protection rules will raise the compliance bar and test whether “low cost” can coexist with tighter oversight.

So what’s the outlook? The base case is steady compounding, with Vidyapeeth boosting yield and online keeping the funnel strong. The upside comes from brand-led pricing power and better center-level playbooks; the downside is overexpansion or regulatory pushback that dents margins. IPO-readiness isn’t about revenue headlines but proving that FY25’s profits are repeatable and per-student economics hold as centers scale. PW has reason to be optimistic, but still must earn the right to be public.

In a market that finally rewards fundamentals, Physicswallah’s story reads less like survival and more like selection. It priced for Bharat, marketed like a community, funded like a conservative, and built an offline engine that makes every online impression worth more tomorrow than it was yesterday.

Let’s go through what else is happening in Indian startup world - Grab your simmering cup of StartupChai.in and unwind with our hand-brewed memes.

“Bucketful of Teardrops”: Ola Electric’s Auditor Flags Inventory Control Lapses, Employee Fraud In FY25

Ola Electric’s annual report reads less like a balance sheet and more like a thriller, as its auditors flagged lapses in scooter inventory checks and even a suspected employee fraud of over ₹1 Cr.

The scooter-maker’s troubles don’t end there, with FY25 also bringing backlash over patchy after-sales service and fudgy sales numbers. For a company racing toward an IPO, this pit stop of red flags is hard to ignore.

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“Mere Taraf Mat Dekhiye”: Gupshup Lays Off 100+ Employees In Cost-Cutting Exercise

Conversational AI firm Gupshup is cutting conversations short within its own walls, laying off over 100 employees in its latest cost-trimming move.

This comes just four months after nearly 200 staffers were shown the door in an earlier round. For a company that powers chats worldwide, its own workforce is facing some tough silences.

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“NaamKaran Ki Gati Vidhiyan”: OYO parent rebrands corporate entity to Prism to align with expanding portfolio

IPO-bound OYO has given itself a new corporate identity, rebranding parent entity Oravel Stays as Prism. Founder Ritesh Agarwal says the move will tie together OYO’s expanding portfolio while keeping each brand’s uniqueness intact.

With Prism as the umbrella, the hospitality giant wants to project a sharper, future-ready image ahead of its big market debut.

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“Kar Chale Hum Vida”: Freshworks Founder Girish Mathrubootham Exits

Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham is stepping away for good, resigning as executive chairman and board chair effective December 1.

The Chennai-born entrepreneur had already moved from CEO to executive chairman last year. Now, with Roxanne Austin taking over as board chair, Freshworks is officially closing the Mathrubootham chapter of its leadership story.

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“Dum Laga Ke Haaisha”: PhysicsWallah Expands Civil Services Play With Stake Acquisition In Sarrthi IAS

Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah is doubling down on the UPSC space by picking up a 40% stake in Sarrthi IAS, valuing the mentorship-driven platform at about ₹250 Cr.

Sarrthi will keep its independence but tap into PW’s tech muscle and resources. With this move, PW’s UPSC play along with its PWOnlyIAS vertical is eyeing a hefty ₹350 Cr revenue milestone by FY26.

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