Business professionals in a modern office, one pointing at a laptop displaying a shopping cart icon.
Indian tax authorities have launched an investigation into Petpooja, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider for restaurant point-of-sale (POS) systems. The probe centers on allegations that Petpooja’s software enabled restaurants to manipulate sales data and evade taxes by deleting bills. This investigation, which began with a focus on biryani chains, has expanded to encompass nearly 100 restaurants across 45 cities. Officials estimate that sales amounting to over ₹5,000 Cr may have been concealed in Punjab alone.
Petpooja has stated that it is merely an infrastructure provider and that the ability to edit entries is a standard industry feature. The company claims to maintain comprehensive audit logs and is cooperating with authorities. Tax officials have reportedly seized 60 terabytes of data from Petpooja’s offices to trace altered records.
In a separate development, fintech firm Pine Labs has announced its acquisition of Shopflo, an e-commerce focused SaaS startup, for ₹88 Cr in an all-cash deal. This acquisition is expected to strengthen Pine Labs’ position in the e-commerce and digital merchant payments sector, contributing to its goal of building a full-stack payments platform. This marks Pine Labs’ first acquisition since its listing last year.
The article also briefly touches upon other financial news including a significant drop in weekly startup funding, mixed performance of new-age tech stocks, Reliance Retail’s expansion of its quick commerce service, and ElasticRun’s strategy to leverage its distribution network for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands.
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