Upgrad: Tax officials visit ed-tech startup upGrad’s office, here’s the company’s statement – Times of India

Officials from the Goods and services tax (GST) department visited the office premise of upGrad today for a search, reports Reuters, which the company termed as a routine exercise.
The company said that officials were conducting a standard survey and fully compliant with the department. However, no further details about the visit were disclosed.
“It’s a routine survey and we are fully compliant and cooperating with the department,” Koell Hemdev, head of legal at upGrad, said in a statement.
The government has been keeping a close eye on ed-tech startups for several months now.
Recently, there were reports in the media that Byju’s could be called in by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) soon. In April of this year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out searches at three locations belonging to Byju Raveendran and his company, Think & Learn Private Limited, under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
In August 2021, the Mumbai-based company announced the status of unicorn. Since then, the firm has acquired five startups – Talentedge, Global Study Partners, Exampur, Wolves India, and Harappa Education.
UpGrad specialises in providing higher education and upskilling courses to students in collaboration with some notable institutes. They offer a wide range of over 100 courses in areas such as data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain, finance, programming, and law.
Ronnie Screwvala founded a startup that raised $600 million and was valued at $2.25 billion last year. The ed-tech startup has received backing from notable investors such as Temasek, James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems, and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.
In recent news, BYJU’S has appointed Arjun Mohan, former CEO of upGrad, as the CEO of its international business. Additionally, It was previously reported that upGrad was in talks to acquire Udacity, a US-based ed-tech company, but upGrad has since denied these rumours.