Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah has acquired United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based edtech startup Knowledge Planet, marking its foray into the global market.
Financial details of the deal were, however, not disclosed.
PhysicsWallah said in a statement that it will leverage Knowledge Planet’s established school partnership machinery to reach the maximum number of students in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.
With the acquisition, PhysicsWallah will offer SAT preparation to students looking towards the West for higher education. The deal will also help the company provide one-on-one STEM courses, the statement added.
Knowledge Planet was founded in 2011 by Monika Oli and Sachin Bharti Gupta. The company provides test preparation for entrance exams such as Joint Entrance Examination and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. It currently has 13 centres operating across the Middle East and also works in school partnerships.
“Knowledge Planet has been on a mission to provide excellent higher education opportunities to Indian expats in the Middle East through in-depth training to help them succeed. We are well-aligned with Alakh Pandey’s vision to offer high-quality education at scale in the Middle East,” said Bharti.
Founded in 2020 by Prateek Maheshwari and educator Alakh Pandey, PhysicsWallah helps students prepare for engineering and medical entrance exams through lectures and sessions on YouTube, the PhysicsWallah app, and its website.
It competes with Byju’s, Unacademy and Vedantu, among others. It turned unicorn in June last year after raising $100 million in its Series A funding round from Westbridge and GSV Ventures.
Post its maiden funding round, PhysicsWallah has been on an acquisition spree. It has been actively seeking merger and acquisitions (M&A) opportunities to mark its expansion into new businesses and markets.
“We’re looking to build across categories, primarily test prep, upskilling, and international. Our acquisition strategy is evolving continuously,” Maheshwari had told VCCircle in an earlier interaction.
It had previously acquired medical preparation platform PrepOnline, books publisher Altis Vortex, upskilling platform iNeuron.ai, and doubt-solving startup FreeCo.