Daybreak - Physics Wallah’s Rs 15 lakh ‘BTech’ comes without a BTech degree

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Physics Wallah’s brand new initiative, the PW Institute of Innovation, was pitched as an alternative to the tough IIT route that didn’t compromise on quality or career prospects. It even came with a scholarship, a residential campus in Bengaluru, and a shot at a good job after graduation. On paper, it looked like the perfect deal.However, students who signed up had to juggle a confusing mix of courses, keep up with a changing curriculum, and struggle through administrative chaos. Even basic things like internships, placement support, and faculty consistency didn’t materialise the way they were promised. For a company known for making quality education affordable, this was a far cry from its coaching roots.But Physics Wallah isn’t just running an institute anymore, it’s a company preparing for the stock market. If you have any thoughts or questions about this episode, send them to us as texts or voice notes on Daybreak’s WhatsApp at [phone]. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me. My interruptions, my analogies and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording.

Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get an alert as soon as we release our first episode, please follow Intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. When 18-year-old Manav enrolled for a cutting-edge tech program, he thought it was designed for the future.

And it wasn't just the marketing that convinced him. It was the promise. a four-year B-tech-like course in computer science and artificial intelligence with no unnecessary subjects and plenty of real-world skills. You know, the kind of education that would make him, quote-unquote, industry-ready? This was Physics Walla's brand new initiative, the Physics Walla Institute of Innovation. And he wasn't the only one sold on that dream. The program was pitched as an alternative to the tough IITU.

route that did not compromise on quality or career prospects. It even came with a scholarship, a residential campus in Bangalore and a shot at a good job after graduation. On paper, it looked like the perfect deal. But less than two years and four lakh rupees later, Manav had to walk away. He had spent more than a year juggling a confusing mix of courses trying to keep up with changing curriculum and struggling through administrative chaos. Even basic things like internships, placement support and faculty consistency did not materialize

the way they were advertised. Manov was not the only one who felt that way. There were more than 30 other students from his batch who gave up as well. So for a company like physics wall are known for making quality education affordable, this was a far cry from its coaching roots. And yet, it is all a part of something bigger. Physics while you see is not just running an institute. It is preparing for the stock market.

And this new program is a part of that story. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nick Dha Sharma, and I Don't Chase the News Cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleague Rahal Philipos, and I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Monday, the 12th of May. All right, let's go back in time a little bit. Physics Wallah started back in 2016 as a YouTube channel offering affordable coaching for engineering entrance exams.

And in a sea of high-priced giants like Allen and Bijouz, it was a breath of fresh air. 5,000 rupees for a year of quality coaching. That was a game changer. So when the company launched the PhysicsWala Institute of Innovation or PhysicsWala I.O.I. Students like Manav were hopeful. The promise was a four-year hands-on program and tech and AI. No JEE, no problem. Real world skills, strong placement support and no unnecessary subjects like physics or chemistry.

They were told it was just as good as the IITs. But things fell apart quickly. First was the confusion with the degree itself. Students were not actually getting a B-tech from Physics Walla I.I. Instead, they were being pushed to enroll into an online BSC from IIT-Gohati. Later, this changed to other names like Manipal, Bitspalani, IIT Madras. And now it is Medhavi's Kale University, a little known institution in Sikkim. Oh, and all these changes came with extra fees.

Now, this meant juggling two courses, in-person technical classes from PhysicsWala Ioi and online BSE lectures from the partner university. Timelines clashed and curriculums changed and nobody really knew who was accountable. From Marnov's batch of 132 students, at least 12 dropped out of the tech program. Another 19 walked away from the business track. That is more than 30 students in a single year, One student who spoke to my colleague, the Ken reporter Supritanapum, put it quite simply. They said, it felt like we were asked to have superhuman skills just to keep up.

Big names who appeared in promotional videos as instructors of the program never taught a single class. Some had already resigned. The leadership changed three times in just one year and the curriculum changed four times. And it wasn't just the key. chaos in the classroom. There were cool-looking videos on Instagram showing off a sprawling campus in Bangal. But the students told Suprid that reality was just one or two floors of a larger building. Many of those flashy social media posts were quietly deleted later. And the final straw? All 132 students in the tech program failed multiple BSE papers in late 2023. They hadn't been prepared.

They hadn't even known what to study. Manav had paid $4,000 by then, and that is when he decided to work away. In 2024, which was last year, students went on a strike. Physicswala co-founders visited the Bangalore campus and promised change. Monthly check-ins, long-term fixes, but none of it materialized. Meanwhile, physicswala marched forward, adding new partner universities, launching a new badge, and planning campuses.

in Noida, Pune and Lucknow. So, what was really going on? Stay tuned to find out. Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar, also from the Ken. Sorry for interrupting your daily date with daybreak. I just wanted to take a moment of your time to tell you that you might like the new episode of First Principles, the Leadership Podcast I host.

A few weeks ago, I flew to Goa to speak with Sahel Barua, the co-founder and CEO of Delivery, the logistics company that had been public two years ago. In a wonderfully candid conversation, Sahel tracks delivery's journey, how he and his co-founders built a logistics network in the image of a telecom network, why they moved to Goa

and how he's grown to be a better and calmer founder over the earth. Here's a small bit from the episode for you to sample. Do you have any other favorite mental models? We talked about first principles, of course. So my favorite one is always, essentially first for anything new that we're building is first to see how it existing, let's say the new businesses,

is first to say how does delivery make use of this become the first large internal customer. And if delivery is a large internal customer is not a feasible customer, then we don't proceed. We did part truck load because we realized the middle mile of our express network was a large part truck load outfit.

We did full truck load because we realized that's effectively what we were doing in our mid-mile. We did warehousing because we realized our transportation network. centers were essentially transit warehouses. And so we built everything as first as a customer. So in some senses, some version of dog fooding, right? Like, you know, you do consume the insight or the gap comes from your own operations

and you try to consume or solve for that using your own operations first. That's the most common mental model that we will use as a company, which is how does this get used before you put it into external road testing? How does internal, how do internal customers use it? Are there some things that have failed through this filter where internally it didn't work and therefore you never decided to kind of work? That's the good thing. If you do it in a disciplined fashion, we've never retreated from a business that we've started. Because you iteratively move on it till you get internal product market fit.

It's never happened. And that's why we'll keep doing it. We don't have a, we learn this from Amazon to be very clear. There's nothing to do. We deliver it and sort of come up with it. ourselves. We watched Amazon do this year after year after it. And we love the idea that you can practically see everything that Amazon's going to do years in advance of them doing it. And their strategy is clear as day, but you can't do anything about it. It's absolutely sort

of, you know, it's an inexorable march towards whatever their end goal is. AWS is a good example. Logistics is a good example. They telegraph it to you. And we like to do the same thing. All our competitors know exactly what we're going to do. And the good thing is, therefore, there's no variance internally. There's no variance with what we're telling anyone. First Principles is published as both free and premium podcasts. The free version airs in two parts over two weeks while the premium one is published all at once. The full episode is over two hours long. I'd love for you to pick up any version you'd like. Let's talk business for a bit. Physics Walla is preparing for a stock market debut.

And as we know, IPOs need growth stories. The original business, which was Low-cost online coaching was not growing fast enough. So spin-offs like Physics Walla I-OI became key to a bigger narrative, higher fees, new revenue streams and better margins. In the financial year 2024, the company brought in over 2,000 crore rupees in revenue. But it also posted losses of more than 1,100 crore rupees. This new college model was supposed to turn it all around. But there was a problem.

universities like Medhavi from Sikkim, which Physicswala Ioi now relies on for degrees, are not household names. They are recognized, sure, but they are not approved by AICTE, which is the body that ensures technical courses meet national standards. And that is a red flag. As one professor put it, you can outsource a module. You can maybe even outsource a semester, but not the whole degree. Other ed tech players are doing similar things. Scalar, for example, partners with universities and actually teaches on their campuses. Newton School does the same.

But the difference? These universities control the curriculum, faculty and structure. At PhysicsWala, Ioi, that is flipped. The startup runs the show and the university provides the paper. From a recruiter's point of view, that matters. hiring managers still care where the degree comes from. Medhavi Skill University does not ring any bells in interview rooms. Meanwhile, students are paying BTEC level fees for a course that looks and feels improvised.

The big idea of reinventing technical education is not a bad one. India's mid-tier engineering colleges do struggle to produce job-ready graduates. A skill-first industry-driven approach could actually really work. But for that, you need a clear structure, consistency, faculty who shows up, a single solid degree and transparent placement pipelines. Instead, what physics Walla IUI has delivered is a workaround. It is a confusing blend of courses, too many changes too soon and too many promises too fast. So in 2025, the institute is trying to simplify things. No more parallel degrees, students will get a B-Tech from Medavi directly, but academic experts still worry about

the quality and credibility. So where does this leave things? There is a massive opportunity here. There are millions of students who do not make it to the IITs. And then you have the traditional system that is already broken. There is a serious need for a new model. But innovation needs infrastructure and ambition needs execution. And students, they need more than marketing videos. They need clarity, they need support and a real education. Physics Walla wants to revolutionize technical education, but instead it seems to have stumbled into the very chaos that it was hoping to fix.

The question now is not just whether the IPO will succeed. It is whether the students like Manav can find a way forward. Thank you for tuning into this episode and if you liked it, please do share it and don't forget to subscribe. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. To subscribe, head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on top of the Ken website. Today's episode was hosted by Snicktha Sharma and edited by Rajiv Siyah.