Sponsorship and Disclosure Policy

In short

• Sponsors are entities such as banks, funds, law firms, accounting firms and service providers that pay a fixed annual fee.
• The sponsorship value is fixed and not tied to any deal or outcome; we take no commission from anyone.
• Sponsors are clearly labelled as sponsors, and sponsorship is not an endorsement by the platform.
• A sponsor cannot see your project unless you enable "visible to sponsors".
• Sponsors receive only an aggregated, anonymised market report.

1. Nature of Sponsorship

1. A sponsor is an entity that has entered into a fixed-value annual sponsorship contract with the Company.
2. The sponsorship value is not tied to any deal, financing or outcome, and the Company takes no commission or percentage from sponsors or users on any dealing.
3. Sponsorship is not an endorsement, recommendation or guarantee by the Company of the sponsor, its services or its qualifications.
4. The Company does not verify sponsors' professional licences or service quality; users should verify for themselves. [For review: the extent of the Company's verification duty when accepting sponsors]
5. Each sponsor is bound by its contract with the Company and by the "Obligations of the Parties".

2. Sponsorship Tiers

1. The early-access delay runs from the time the project is made available to sponsors.
2. Each tier has a monthly contact quota set by the sponsorship contract.

3. What Sponsors See

3.1 Projects

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

3.2 "Ask a specialist" requests

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

3.3 Market report

1. Sponsors 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.

4. Disclosure to Users

1. Each sponsor is clearly labelled "Sponsor", with its tier, wherever it appears on the platform.
2. Content provided by a sponsor, such as handover contract templates or articles, is clearly attributed to it.
3. Sponsors do not influence project ranking, match results or AI outputs. [For review: whether sponsors appear in any ranking or suggestion, and how that is disclosed]
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.

5. Prohibited for Sponsors

1. Exceeding access limits or quotas.
2. Implying that sponsorship 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.

6. Complaints About Sponsors

You can report any improper conduct by a sponsor to legal@octasolutions.net, under "Complaints, Disputes and Contact".