GST officials visit Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad's office premises in Mumbai

GST officials visit upGrad offices in Mumbai

Goods and services tax (GST) officials visited the office premises of Ronnie Screwvala's upGrad on July 19 in Mumbai for a routine survey, the edtech unicorn said in a statement.

"It’s a routine survey and we are fully compliant and cooperating with the department," said Koell Hemdev, Head of Legal, at upGrad, without disclosing any further details.

The recent visit by GST officials to upGrad's office premises marks the second occasion where a startup has drawn the attention of government authorities.

Back in April, India's most-valued startup, Byju's, faced scrutiny when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at three of their office locations. Subsequently, in June, Byju's also fell under the scrutiny of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

Founded in 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli, upGrad runs a higher education platform for working professionals. The company has raised more than $400 million in equity to date and counts Singapore's Temasek Group, IFC Asset Management, James Murdoch's Lupa Systems among others as its backers.

In FY22, the company reported a widening loss of Rs 626 crore as its employee benefit costs surged close to Rs 400 crore. upGrad, however, reported an over two-fold increase in FY22 revenue to Rs 682.21 crore on a consolidated basis. In an interview with Moneycontrol in August last year, Kumar had said that upGrad would achieve profitability if it refrains from doing any further acquisitions.

upGrad has been on an acquisition spree since 2021. The company has acquired more than 11 startups to expand its offerings. In August last year, upGrad also raised a large $210 million funding round from a clutch of investors and saw its valuation rise to nearly $2.25 billion, in what was one of the rare instances of a large edtech investment in 2022. upGrad also raised Rs 300 crore in an internal funding round from Temasek, Ronnie Screwvala, other existing shareholders in March this year.