Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah made a strong debut on the domestic bourses on Tuesday, exceeding Street expectations, even after its ₹3,480 crore initial public offering (IPO) received a subdued response from investors. The country’s top online ed-tech platform, co-founded by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Boob, listed at ₹143.1 per share on the NSE, a premium of 31.28% premium over its issue price of ₹109.

The strong listing placed PhysicsWallah among the top-performing new-age companies of 2025, securing the second-best listing gain of the year. This performance put the edtech firm ahead of several high-profile digital and consumer-tech players that entered the public markets this year.

Among the six major new-age IPOs in 2025, Urban Company led the charts with a spectacular 57.5% listing gain, after its shares debuted at ₹162.5 against an issue price of ₹103 on September 16. PhysicsWallah followed next, outperforming names such as Pine Labs, Groww, Lenskart Solutions, and Ather Energy.

Fintech major Pine Labs, which listed on November 14, posted a respectable 9.5% premium, with shares opening at ₹242 versus an issue price of ₹221. Investing platform Groww registered a 12% listing gain, debuting at ₹112 compared with ₹100 per share.

In contrast, Lenskart Solutions saw a muted market response, listing at ₹395, a 1.75% discount to the issue price of ₹402, making it the only new-age company in this group to list below its offer price in 2025.

Electric scooter maker Ather Energy, which entered the markets earlier on May 6, recorded a modest 2.18% listing gain, with shares opening at ₹328 compared with an issue price of ₹321.

Overall, 2025 has been a mixed but largely positive year for new-age firms tapping the IPO market. Urban Company and PhysicsWallah stood out with strong investor enthusiasm, while others saw moderate to subdued responses.

PhysicsWallah listing beats estimates

The listing was better than Street expectations, as the stock was commanding a grey market premium (GMP) of ₹14 in the unlisted market, indicating an estimated listing price of around ₹123 per share, up 12.84%.

The GMP for PhysicsWallah shares had earlier dropped to zero after the IPO saw a muted investor response, but momentum picked up in the past few days, pushing the premium to a high of ₹14.

The debut came even as broader markets were weak, with the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty falling up to 0.3% in early trade.

Despite the strong debut, the PhysicsWallah IPO had received a tepid overall response, subscribing 1.8 times on the last day of bidding. The issue comprised a fresh issue of ₹3,100 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of ₹380 crore, attracting bids for 33.62 crore shares against 18.62 crore shares on offer, as per exchange data.

The qualified institutional buyers (QIB) portion led the subscription, booking 2.7 times, with strong participation from mutual funds (16.03 crore shares) and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) (8.63 crore shares). The employee quota also saw robust interest at 3.49 times subscription, while the retail portion saw a modest 1.06 times oversubscription. In contrast, non-institutional investors (NIIs) showed limited interest, bidding only 0.48 times their allocated quota.

The IPO, open from November 11 to November 13, was priced in a band of ₹103–₹109 per share, with a ₹10 discount for employees.

PhysicsWallah plans to deploy the proceeds from the fresh issue toward expanding its offline learning network, upgrading content and technology platforms, and general corporate purposes. The company has proposed to invest ₹460.55 crore in capital expenditure for new offline and hybrid centres and ₹548.31 crore toward lease payments for existing centres. It will allocate ₹710 crore for marketing initiatives and ₹200.11 crore for server and cloud infrastructure. A portion of the funds will also be invested in subsidiaries such as Utkarsh Classes & Edutech Pvt. Ltd., and will support inorganic growth through acquisitions.

Ahead of the IPO, PhysicsWallah raised ₹1,562.85 crore from 57 anchor investors, allotting 14.33 crore equity shares at ₹109 apiece, with participation from both domestic and foreign institutional investors.

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