Imarticus Learning is set to step into the public market with an initial public offering (IPO) looking to raise around INR 750 Cr in a combination of fresh issue and offer for sale of existing shares.

The Mumbai-based edtech company has appointed investment bank IIFL to manage the IPO. “We have set the timeline of filing DRHP in the next 4-5 months,” founder and CEO Nikhil Barshikhar told Inc42 in an interaction.

Imarticus Learning is looking likely to become the second Indian edtech startup to hit the public markets after Westbridge Capital-backed Physics Wallah, which filed for an INR 4,500 Cr IPO two weeks ago through the confidential filing route.

These two IPOs could herald a turnaround in the edtech sector, which has suffered from all manner of downturn and decline since 2021, with dozens of startups shutting shops, and the collapse of BYJU’S.

Despite the downturn in the industry, Imarticus Learning managed to stay profitable for the last 7-8 years, Barsikhar said. The former investment banker founded Imaricus Learning in 2012 and said the company has seen revenue growth between 20% and 30% year-on-year over the last few years.

Further, Imarticus claims to have has onboarded about 25,000 learners across its platform with courses in finance, digital marketing, data analytics, GenAI, business management, human resources among other areas. These are conducted in partnership with institutions such as IIT Roorkee and IIM Lucknow. It imparts training to individual learners as well as corporate employees.

Barshikar said Imarticus Learning has remained profitable even as the edtech sector grappled with severe headwinds, prompting most of its peers to scale down operations, and driving investors away from the vertical.

He also talked about the company’s road towards IPO and the winning strategy in the hyper-competitive upskilling business.

Here are excerpts from the interview…

Inc42: Let’s start with the financials. Will you please give an insight into Imarticus Learning’s numbers, especially in terms of revenues and EBITDA.

Nikhil Barshikhar: We are a bootstrapped company that has been profitable for the last 7-8 years. We have the credentials needed to head for an IPO which is why we are planning for the same.

Our revenues have jumped by 25% on-year to INR 205 Cr in FY25 and our EBITDA has grown by 100% in FY25. We are at a stage where we have predictable and profitable revenue. Earlier, we were an employment-focussed, finance-training company. Now we have multiple outcomes. Employment is one of the outcomes. Executive education is another, and so on and so forth.

This diversification is also a drift from finance. Finance makes up 40% of........

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