Amidst industry challenges, Indian education technology startup Physics Wallah revealed on Friday that it has raised $210 million to expand its business through acquisitions among other means.

The company is now valued at $2.8 billion, a considerable rise from its previous estimate of $1.1 billion, thanks to the fundraising headed by Hornbill Capital and including Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSV, and WestBridge.

Founded in 2020, Physics Wallah is one of the many education technology companies (ed-tech) in India that provides both free and paid courses for various competitive examinations in the country. In an effort to stand out from the competition and make its courses more affordable for children living in lower-income areas of the nation, the company offers courses that typically cost less than $50.

“We are not built for 1% of the country or 1% of the world, we are built for the remaining 99%, those who cannot go to these fancy coaching classes … now we enable different kinds of students,” In a recent interview, Physics Wallah CEO Alakh Pandey stated.

The startup offers free YouTube lessons under a freemium business model. There is a premium option for students who desire additional features like homework and tests.

According to the company, its sales increased by 250% year over year in the fiscal year that ended in March 2024. Pandey stated he anticipates the current fiscal year to have the “highest absolute” EBITDA. EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, is one metric used by businesses to gauge their profitability.

According to Pandey, the business is open to acquisitions as long as they provide them access to fresh users and content.

“Consolidation, we are open to it if it’s based on different geography that we cannot serve to, and if it caters to content and community first,” Pandey stated.

The CEO indicated the company’s prior equity investments. South Indian state of Kerala is home to the ed-tech startup Xylem Learning, in which Physics Wallah acquired a 50% share last year.

As long as a deal allows the business to gain access to fresh users and content, Pandey stated that it is open to acquisitions.

“If consolidation prioritizes content and community over geography and is based on a different geography that we cannot serve, then we are open to it,” Pandey stated.

The CEO indicated the stock investments the company has already made. Physics Wallah acquired a 50% share in Kerala, south India-based Xylem Learning, an ed-tech startup, last year.

Indian edtech problems

The organization, according to Pandey and his co-founder Prateek Maheshwari, is focused on a few major themes, such as the push for hybrid learning—both online and in traditional classroom settings—and increased internet access in India’s villages, towns, and smaller cities. All of this facilitates children’s access to education who come from less fortunate households.

Several companies sought to develop rapidly during the Covid epidemic, which led to the start of India’s ed-tech boom.

However, this growth also brought about a number of high-profile failures in the industry, such as the nearly bankrupt ed-tech company Byju, which was once valued at $22 billion and is currently dealing with many insolvency proceedings in India. A number of issues, such as aggressive acquisitions, excessive marketing expenditures, and poor management, have been blamed for its downfall.

Speaking about some of the setbacks in India’s ed-tech industry, Pandey stated that his organization is concentrated on the results it achieves for students as well as the content it provides.

“If you look at interviews or even the news stories of the actors you’re talking about, all they talk about is their outrageous valuation and the amount of money they have raised,” Pandey stated.

Education is a distinct entity. It differs from other startups in that it is possible to expand and discuss absurd valuations. Fundamentally, you have to acknowledge that you are genuinely trying to improve the lives of your students.

“I don’t believe the market has shrunk. A couple of players have struggled to perform post-Covid … but the learners are increasing year-on-year,” according to Maheshwari.

Regarding Physics Wallah’s future, Pandey stated that an IPO will occur but that a timetable will not be specified.

“An IPO is something that we will do. We want to have a strong governance in the company, we are working on that, forming a board of independent directors … it’s not that important for us when the IPO will happen, we are running the company like a public company,” Pandey stated.

The French insurance unicorn, Alan, recently inked a multi-pronouncement agreement with Belgium’s largest bank, Belfius, which involves a distribution alliance and a sizeable investment in the firm.

Alan’s €173 million Series F fundraising round, or around $193 million at current currency rates, is being led by Belfius. A few of Alan’s previous backers are taking part once more: Temasek, Coatue, Lakestar, Teachers’ Venture Growth, and OTPP.

If you’re not acquainted with Alan, the business began with a health insurance plan meant to supplement France’s state healthcare system. When an employee joins a French company, they are all required to get health insurance.

The user experience offered by Alan’s primary product is far superior to that of a traditional insurance provider because to extensive optimization. Alan has, for example, automated a large portion of the claim administration system. There are instances where you receive a reimbursement on your bank account minutes after leaving the physician’s office.

With time, the business expanded its offerings to include more health-related services like live chat with physicians, prescription eyeglass ordering, and access to preventive care materials on back pain, mental health, and other topics through a mobile app. The business has been using AI more lately to boost productivity.

Alan disclosed several performance indicators for the company earlier this year. The company said it could achieve profitability without seeking more capital as over 500,000 people were insured by Alan’s insurance products.

Although the bank will sell the startup’s health insurance products to its own corporate and institutional clients, which represent millions of employees, Alan said the cooperation with Belfius was a fantastic opportunity to broaden its customer base in Belgium.

“This privileged partnership with Belfius, whose transformation over the past decade has been truly inspiring, opens the door to a new era for Alan in Belgium. Belfius’ investment will allow us to accelerate our development and expand our capacity to offer cutting-edge, accessible health products and services to a wide audience,” co-founder and CEO of Alan, Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, said in a statement that Belfius’ investment.

Alan has recruited an additional 150,000 clients since February, including the French Prime Minister’s office. This year, it anticipates that its recurring revenue would total €450 million, or almost $500 million.

But Alan’s not your average software-as-a-service provider; the majority of its earnings are allocated to paying insurance claims. However, one thing is certain: the business is growing at an unstoppable rate.

Kubecost is a FinOps business that assists teams like Allianz, Audi, Rakuten, and GitLab in monitoring and optimizing their Kubernetes clusters with an emphasis on cost and efficiency. IBM announced on Tuesday that it has purchased Kubecost.

The news on Tuesday comes after IBM acquired Apptio, a different FinOps business, for $4.3 billion in 2023. Additionally, in prior years, IBM purchased businesses such as application performance monitoring startup Instana and cloud app and network management company Turbonomic. With the acquisition of KubeCost, IBM is now able to further strengthen its IT and FinOps capabilities in response to businesses’ growing need for better management of their increasingly complicated on-premises and cloud infrastructure.

“Since launching in 2019, our mission has been to optimize the world’s infrastructure,” co-founder and CEO of Kubecost Webb Brown stated on the business blog. “We started with Kubernetes cost monitoring, and we’ve proudly become the most widely adopted solution in the cloud native ecosystem. Now, as a result of this merger, we’re poised to accelerate our mission by delivering broader, end-to-end cost management solutions to teams everywhere.”

It’s important to remember that OpenCost, the foundation of Kubecost’s commercial solution, is an open source project that is vendor-neutral and created by Kubecost. OpenCost is one of the sandbox projects of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, having debuted in 2022.

Although Apptio purchased Cloudability in 2019 and Turbonomic, IBM claims that Kubecost will be integrated into its FinOps Suite. However, it wouldn’t be shocking if IBM also further integrated Kubecost/OpenCost into its OpenShift enterprise platform.

The purchase price was kept a secret by the two businesses. In 2022, Kubecost completed a $25 million Series A fundraising round headed by Coatue Management. In 2021, First financing Capital led a $5.5 million seed financing for the startup.