Lightspeed Exits PhysicsWallah Post ₹550 Cr Stake Sale

VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners has exited edtech major PhysicsWallah (PW), minting ₹549.7 Cr from the sale of 4.67 Cr shares via block and bulk deals today.

According to market data, the firm, via its holding entity Lightspeed Opportunity Fund II sold the shares at weighted average trade price of ₹117.72 apiece, a 6.7% discount to the stock’s closing price today. 

The investor held 1.61% stake or 4,66,98,120 shares in PW as of June 30, 2026. With the offloading today, Lightspeed has completely exited from the edtech bet. 

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund emerged as the largest buyer, acquiring 2.2 Cr shares worth ₹259 Cr, or nearly half of the volume sold. 

Among the other buyers, Goldman Sachs picked up 89 Lakh shares across five different entities, while Ghisallo Master Fund, Societe Generale and Morgan Stanley Asia also lapped up chunks of stake in the company.

Lightspeed first invested in PW during its $210 Mn Series B funding round in September 2024. It owned 1.79% stake in the company at the time of its public listing in November. 

Although Lightspeed, like PW’s other institutional investors WestBridge Capital, Hornbill Capital and GSV Ventures, didn’t partake in the OFS component of the IPO, it lowered its stake slightly since then. 

PW’s other major backer WestBridge Capital’s nominee director, Sandeep Singhal, resigned earlier last week “due to his other professional and personal commitments”. 

The edtech major raised up to ₹3,100 Cr while promoters Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari sold shares worth ₹380 Cr via the IPO. After making a stellar public markets debut, the company’s stock hasn’t had a smooth sailing.

While the scrip is currently trading 12% lower than its opening price of ₹143.10, the stock has gone as low as ₹77.75. 

The performance could be attributed to the fact that the company hasn’t been able to turn profitable till now, despite reducing its net loss significantly since listing. For the full FY26, the edtech company cut its net loss by 90% to ₹24.2 Cr from ₹243.3 Cr in FY25. Operating revenue surged 35% YoY to ₹3,899.5 Cr.

The company continued to be in the red, reporting a net loss of ₹88.3 Cr in Q1 FY27. While it managed to trim its net loss by 30% YoY, PW turned EBITDA positive during the quarter, posting an EBITDA of ₹52 Cr and a margin of 4.9%.

Its operating revenue crossed the ₹1,000 Cr mark, jumping 24.4% YoY and 15% QoQ to ₹1,054 Cr in Q1 FY27. 

The company also noted that its results were impacted by the postponement and subsequent re-examination of NEET UG, which resulted in a 28% plunge in online NEET collections. 

Shares of PhysicsWallah ended the day 3.91% higher at ₹126.10 apiece on the BSE.

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