PhysicsWallah Limited: 73.8% enrolments beyond JEE-NEET

In H1 FY27, PhysicsWallah Limited reported that 73.8% of online enrolments came from categories beyond the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), up from 64.8% a year earlier, while online revenue grew 29.3% year on year as K-12, skills, vernacular courses and newer examinations expanded.

How much has PW's online enrolment mix moved beyond JEE and NEET?

PW's online enrolment mix moved 9 percentage points beyond JEE and NEET in H1 FY27, with other categories accounting for 73.8% of enrolments versus 64.8% in the prior-year period. The company identified K-12, upskilling, vernacular learning and new examinations as offsets to a slower NEET cycle, while H1 collections grew 16.6% year on year.

The shift occurred while the NEET admission cycle remained below the previous year. PW said online NEET cohorts were about 7% lower and enrolments about 13% lower after NEET UG 2026 results were released on 16 July 2026, shortening the post-result decision period. Q2 FY27 showed a later improvement, however, with NEET enrolments up 31% year on year and collections up 27%.

PW's digital activity metrics provide context for the broader product mix, with 106.13 million total app downloads, more than 4.1 million daily active users and average engagement time of 98 minutes. These measures describe use of the platform rather than paid enrolments, but they accompany the expansion across products and learner groups.

Which categories are driving PW's enrolment diversification?

Boards and CUET, Foundation, skills and financial-services courses were among the disclosed contributors to PW's broader mix in H1 FY27. Boards and CUET enrolments rose 130% year on year to 4.55 lakh, with collections up 86%, while Foundation enrolled 5.70 lakh learners, up 15%, and increased collections by 40%.

Skills recorded the sharpest reported enrolment increase, rising 10.3 times to 1.69 lakh learners, while collections rose 78%. Commerce enrolled 86,000 students, up 42%, but collections increased 13%, showing that enrolment and collection growth did not move at the same rate across all new categories.

Financial-services courses in CA, CS, ACCA and CFA recorded 70,500 enrolments at average collection per user, or ACPU, of Rs 5,440, about 1.3 times the online average according to PW. Civil Services ACPU rose 34% to Rs 7,967 and GATE ACPU increased 31% to Rs 8,647; their collections rose 40% and 31%, respectively.

Not all non-core categories expanded in H1 FY27. Government Exam enrolments declined 24% and collections fell 14%, which PW attributed to fewer job vacancies and slower examinations, while NEET PG enrolments rose 35% to 9,500. The comparison indicates that the wider mix reduces dependence on JEE and NEET but retains exposure to recruitment and examination cycles.

How are premium and vernacular products affecting PW's collections?

Premium products contributed 35% of PW's H1 FY27 collections, up from 31% a year earlier. Infinity and Pro collections rose 32% year on year in H1 and 49% in Q2, while Infinity Pro collections quadrupled in Q2 as more learners selected the highest tier.

Other premium products also recorded collection growth. Power Batch collections increased 31% in H1 FY27 and 14% in Q2, while Curious Junior collections more than doubled in H1 and grew 54% in Q2. PW said rising premium attachment, alongside enrolment growth, supported online margin expansion.

Vernacular enrolments rose 77% year on year to 1.23 lakh in H1 FY27 across 10 languages, compared with two languages a year earlier. Marathi represented 46% of vernacular enrolments, followed by Bangla, Gujarati and Assamese, giving PW a disclosed language-led route into markets outside its original Hindi-belt base.

What do PW's Q2 online results show about the business mix?

PW reported Q2 FY27 online revenue of Rs 694 crore, up 26.4% year on year, while collections grew 24.9%. Pre-IndAS EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation before Indian Accounting Standards adjustments, increased 47.2% to Rs 239 crore and the margin reached 34.4%, about 490 basis points above a year earlier.

For H1 FY27, online Pre-IndAS EBITDA rose 66.8% to Rs 312 crore and the margin was 25.1%, up about 565 basis points year on year. Management said much of content, faculty and platform spending is fixed, so higher enrolments and premium attachment can lift margins; this is management's explanation rather than a forecast.

Online grew faster than the offline business in Q2 FY27. Offline revenue increased 9.0% to Rs 541 crore and accounted for 44% of company revenue, down from 47% a year earlier, while it reported a Pre-IndAS EBITDA loss of Rs 8 crore. Online's Rs 239 crore positive Pre-IndAS EBITDA contrasts with that offline loss, although the segments have different delivery models and cost bases.

What needs to improve for PW's online growth to continue?

PW identified recovery in IIT-JEE and NEET, revenue conversion in skills and stabilisation in Government Exams as key monitorables. Q2 FY27 provided early signs in each core area: NEET enrolments rose 31%, IIT-JEE enrolments rose 17%, and Government Exam collections were stable with 2% growth after the 14% H1 decline.

Management expects the delayed NEET cycle's effect to be transient and said NEET crash-course programmes later in the year could support recovery. It also said the anticipated move to a computer-based NEET examination format in FY28 could provide an additional demand catalyst, while cautioning that the 2026 delay is expected to remain visible in full-year NEET numbers.

The company is also expanding its product base through AI Tuto, which has an initial Class 8 pilot. PW reported that its proof of concept used more than 1,200 lectures, 137 chapters, 329 topics and a question bank of more than 1 million questions; its disclosed next step is expansion to Classes 10 and 12, GATE, other categories and vernacular languages.

Conclusion

PW's 73.8% share of online enrolments outside JEE and NEET indicates that reported online growth is increasingly supported by several learner categories rather than only its traditional entrance-exam base. The 9-percentage-point mix change in H1 FY27 coincided with 29.3% online revenue growth, driven by disclosed gains in Boards and CUET, skills, premium products and vernacular learning despite a softer NEET cycle.

The next issues to watch are the full-year NEET result after the delayed 2026 admissions cycle, skills' conversion of enrolments into collections and whether Government Exam collections remain stable after Q2's 2% increase. Management also plans to expand AI Tuto beyond its Class 8 pilot to Classes 10 and 12, GATE, other categories and additional languages.