India Deals: Social Startup Haqdarshak Secures Angel Funding & More News

1) Nitish Kumar Releases Bihar’s Startup Policy, Announces Rs 500Cr Fund
 At the 4th Bihar Entrepreneurship Summit (BES), organised by Bihar Entrepreneurs Association, on Tuesday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar released Bihar StartUp Policy 2017. Bihar is among the few states in India to have a startup policy that was drafted and introduced in 2016. It was later repealed to incorporate changes based on the suggestions and feedback, and was re-launched last week. The aim of the policy is to enable Bihar to emerge as the most preferred destination for startups and entrepreneurs.

2) Pregnancy & Baby Care Products Startup The Moms Co. Raises Seed Round
Amishi Consumer Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs pregnancy and baby care products firm The Moms Co., has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from co-founder of food startup Fingerlix and beverages firm PaperBoat Shripad Nadkarni, Nestle executive Nandu Nandkishore, and senior partners from McKinsey.

3) Social Startup Haqdarshak Secures Angel Funding, $2M Commitment
Bangalore-headquartered Haqdarshak Empowerment Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a tech-enabled social enterprise, has raised close to Rs 1.25 crore ($191,000) in angel funding from a clutch of investors, including WonderChef managing director Ravi Saxena and former Infosys executive Sandeep Raju. Besides, for its pre-Series A funding round, the startup has secured in-principle commitment from three social impact investors to raise as much as Rs 13.1 crore ($2 million).

4) SoftBank Drops $100M Investment in iPhone Rival
SoftBank Group Corp. scrapped a planned $100 million investment in a smartphone startup founded by the creator of Google’s Android software, partly because of the Japanese investor’s increasingly close relationship with Apple Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.