Edtech unicorn (PW) and e-learning platform have formed a joint venture (JV) to provide academic training and course offerings in various categories to students.
The duo plan to leverage each other’s core competencies to offer value-added education across all examinations and jointly foray into new exam categories, the firms said in a statement.
“The founding teams (of PW and Utkarsh Classes) have a solid vision of providing result-oriented quality education to every student in the country at an affordable fee,” Alakh Pandey, PhysicsWallah Founder and CEO, said. “Our collaboration will help us better serve students across India and make their learning experience more enriching.”
This JV announcement comes at a time when edtech players have turned their focus to hybrid after experiencing a decline in demand since schools and colleges started reopening in a phased manner.
Utkarsh Classes, which has been operating offline classes for over 20 years, will assist PW in strengthening its offline operations and building a robust hybrid learning model.
Under this partnership, Utkarsh Classes will expand the government test preparation category and launch offline centres in 32 cities across India, where PW has already established its offline centres.
PhysicsWallah ventured into the offline space with PW Vidyapeeth last year. The edtech unicorn said it will expand its outreach by opening more Vidyapeeths, and will continue scaling up in the all-India competitive exam categories.
Credit: YourStory Design
In a hybrid world, edtech companies are going to rely on technology even more. PW said it will leverage its technology team to assist in developing the mechanism for the delivery of study material for the Jodhpur-headquartered e-learning platform.
During YourStory’s startup-tech summit, TechSparks 2022, Pandey said that whether it is online or offline, technology should be infused into education to help students in areas such as doubt clearing, and revision, among others.
This joint venture will also help provide study material from PW to Utkarsh Classes. The firms plan to introduce co-branded education products as well.
In addition, the duo will launch a new category—‘Utkarsh Private Jobs’—to help train students to prepare for their placements in the private sector.
Pandey had previously announced that the company plans to develop its skills-related classes, although it has not set a timeline for expanding its upskilling vertical PW Skills, which was announced last year.
Utkarsh Classes, founded by Dr Nirmal Gehlot in 2002, offers learning courses in both online and offline modes, for various central and state government recruitment examinations, all-India competitive exams, and school education courses.
