Apart from Supam Maheshwari, at least six other investors in FirstCry, including private equity firm ChrysCapital Management Co and Sunil Bharti Mittal’s family office, have received Income Tax notice related to the matter.
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New Delhi: The Income Tax department is probing an alleged tax evasion by founder of three Indian unicorns — FirstCry.com, Globalbees Brands Ltd. and Xpressbees, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. In this regard, the Income Tax department has sent notices to founder Supam Maheshwari asking why he didn’t pay more than $50 million in taxes on equity transactions conducted in privately-held FirstCry.
Apart from Supam Maheshwari, at least six other investors in FirstCry, including private equity firm ChrysCapital Management Co and Sunil Bharti Mittal’s family office, have also received inquiries related to the matter.
However, sources close to the development said Supam Maheshwari is in conversations with the tax department to settle the probe matter.
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It should be noted that FirstCry turned profitable in the financial year that ended March 31, 2021, after years of losses. It has become one of the few startups in the country seeking to tap the IPO market after being profitable at an operational level, Bloomberg reported earlier.
SoftBank Vision Fund’s Managing Partner and CFO Navneet Govil recently said FirstCry is expected to file its draft papers by the end of 2023.
SoftBank had last week offloaded around 1.5% to 2% stake in FirstCry to Ranjan Pai’s MEMG Family Office, Harsh Mariwala’s Sharrp Ventures, and Hemendra Kothari’s DSP family office, according to a report by The Economic Times.
It was earlier reported that Manipal Group’s Chairman Ranjan Pai was in advanced stages of talks to acquire a stake in the e-commerce platform. He is expected to invest around Rs 250 crore in FirsCry.
