Service Provider and Disclosure Policy

In short

• "Subscribed service providers" are funders, law and legal-advisory firms, accounting firms and virtual offices that pay a fixed annual subscription.
• The subscription value is fixed and not tied to any deal or outcome; we take no commission from anyone.
• They appear on each category page ranked by the type of paid subscription, and we state this clearly wherever they appear.
• Paid featured listings are marked with the word "Ad" and the "AD" label, and run for a fixed period.
• A subscription or ad is not an endorsement by the platform.
• A service provider cannot see your project unless you enable "visible to service providers".
• Subscribed service providers receive only an aggregated, anonymised market report.

1. Nature of the Subscription

1. A subscribed service provider (the "service provider" in this policy and in the other terms) is an entity that has entered into a fixed-value annual subscription contract with the Company (the "provider contract"), and is shown to users on the platform as a "service provider" in one of these categories: funders, law and legal-advisory firms, accounting firms, virtual offices, or business services.
2. The subscription value is not tied to any deal, financing or outcome, and the Company takes no commission or percentage from service providers or users on any dealing.
3. A subscription is not an endorsement, recommendation or guarantee by the Company of the service provider, its services or its qualifications.
4. The Company does not verify service providers' professional licences or service quality; users should verify for themselves. [For review: the extent of the Company's verification duty when accepting service providers]
5. Each service provider is bound by its contract with the Company and by the "Obligations of the Parties".

2. Subscription Plans

1. The term is one year under an annual contract; plan prices are published on the "Join as a service provider" page or set by contract.
2. The early-access delay runs from the time the project is made available to service providers.
3. Each plan has a monthly contact quota set by the contract.

3. Ranking and Ads

3.1 Ranking by subscription

1. Within each category, service providers are ranked by subscription plan (Exclusive, then Official, then Gold, then Essential, then Directory), then by the earliest contract start date, then by name.
2. The same ranking applies wherever service providers appear on the platform, such as category pages, execution steps and "Ask a specialist".
3. Every page or list showing service providers states that "ranking is by the type of paid subscription the provider holds on the platform", with a link to this policy.
4. The "Verified partner" badge only means that the provider holds one of the two top plans (Exclusive or Official); it does not mean the Company approves or endorses the quality of its services.

3.2 Featured listing (ad)

1. A service provider with an active subscription may buy a featured listing with points for a fixed period (one week or 30 days) at the top of its category page and at the top of that category's lists inside the platform.
2. A featured listing is displayed in a clearly different style and is marked with the word "Ad" and the "AD" label next to the provider's name.
3. The number of ad slots is limited per category and country, and an advertised provider is not shown again in the ranked list below the ads.
4. An ad ends automatically when its period ends or when the subscription ends or is cancelled.
5. Ads and subscriptions do not influence project ranking, match results, AI outputs or the content of the procedures guide.

4. What Service Providers See

4.1 Projects

1. A service provider sees a project only if its owner enabled the "visible to service providers" option.
2. Access is subject to the plan delay and the monthly quota.
3. You can turn the option off at any time, and your project stops being shown to service providers from then on. [For review: treatment of data a service provider viewed before the option was turned off]
4. [For review: define the scope of project data visible to service providers (teaser only or more)]

4.2 "Ask a specialist" requests

1. A founder can send an "Ask a specialist" request to a specific service provider.
2. On sending, the service provider receives the founder's name, email and message text.
3. The service provider becomes responsible for this data and must use it only to respond to the request.
4. Any subsequent contract between the founder and the service provider is a direct relationship between them, to which the Company is not a party.

4.3 Market report

1. Subscribed service providers receive an aggregated, anonymised market report on projects.
2. Any cell with fewer than 3 projects is hidden to prevent identifying a specific project.
3. The report contains no personal data or data about a specific project.

5. Disclosure to Users

1. Each subscribed provider is shown as a "service provider" in its category, with disclosure that ranking is by paid subscription, and ads are marked "Ad" and "AD", wherever it appears on the platform.
2. Any contact request a service provider sends to a founder is labelled as coming from a "service provider".
3. Content provided by a service provider, such as handover contract templates or articles, is clearly attributed to it.
4. The Company complies with the advertising and disclosure rules of Egypt's Consumer Protection Law No. 181 of 2018 to the extent they apply.

6. Prohibited for Service Providers

1. Exceeding access limits or quotas.
2. Implying that a subscription, an ad or the "Verified partner" badge is an endorsement or partnership with the platform.
3. Using users' data for unsolicited marketing.
4. Offering securities or financing to the public through the platform.

7. Complaints About Service Providers

You can report any improper conduct by a service provider, or an unclear ad, to legal@octasolutions.net, under "Complaints, Disputes and Contact".