Terms of Use

In short

• startupme is a digital introductions platform connecting founders with investors and service providers, operated by OCTA Solution LLC in Egypt.
• The platform takes no commission or percentage from any deal, does not receive, hold or transfer funds, and does not give investment, legal or tax advice.
• Any agreement or investment happens directly between users, off the platform and at their own responsibility.
• You must be at least 18 years old and provide accurate information.
• The platform is in beta; services may change or be temporarily unavailable.
• We notify you of any material change to these terms, and you can only continue using the service after accepting the new version.

1. Operator and Scope

1.1 The operator

1. The platform is operated by "OCTA Solution LLC" (شركة حلول أوكتا ذات المسؤولية المحدودة), an Egyptian limited liability company headquartered in Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt, founded in 2021.
2. Managers: Tarek Asad and Mohamed Hassan Hosny Ali.
3. Commercial Register No.: [Commercial Register No.]. Tax Registration No.: [Tax Registration No.]. Registered address: [Full registered address].
4. Company website: www.octasolutions.net. General email: support@octasolutions.net. Legal notices: legal@octasolutions.net.
5. "startupme" is a brand and product of the Company, not a separate legal entity.

1.2 Scope

1. These terms govern the relationship between the Company and anyone who accesses or uses the platform.
2. The following policies form an integral part of these terms: the "Privacy Policy", "Cookie Policy", "Your Rights and How to Exercise Them", "Obligations of the Parties", "Acceptable Use Policy", "Subscriptions, Points and Refunds Policy", "AI Use Policy", "Verified Handover Terms", "Sponsorship and Disclosure Policy", "Nature of the Platform and Disclaimer", and "Complaints, Disputes and Contact".
3. Where these terms conflict with a service-specific policy, the specific policy prevails within the scope of that service.

2. Definitions

The following terms have the meanings below wherever used in these terms and in all platform policies:

3. Eligibility and Accounts

3.1 Eligibility

1. You must be at least 18 years old and have legal capacity to contract. We do not create accounts for minors.
2. If you use the platform on behalf of a company or organisation, you confirm you are authorised to bind it to these terms.

3.2 Your account

1. At registration you choose an account type: founder, investor or sponsor. Investor accounts are free.
2. You must provide accurate, complete information, keep it up to date, and verify your email address.
3. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately at support@octasolutions.net if you suspect unauthorised use.
4. You may not create more than one account for the same role to circumvent quotas or restrictions.

3.3 Identity verification

1. An administrator may ask to verify your identity manually (KYC) at graduated levels, with notes explaining what is required.
2. Verification is an internal trust measure and is not a guarantee of any user's accuracy, solvency or project.

4. Description of Services

4.1 For founders

1. Listing a project and its data (title, sector, stage, problem, solution, business model and monthly metrics).
2. Showing an anonymised teaser to investors, and accepting or declining intro requests.
3. Data rooms with a watermark carrying the viewer's identity, a log of every view, and analytics for the owner.
4. Idea fingerprint: a digital fingerprint (SHA-256) with a timestamp that serves as technical evidence that you held certain content at a certain time. It is not a registration or legal protection of intellectual property.
5. A "visible to sponsors" option and "Ask a specialist" requests addressed to sponsors.

4.2 For investors

1. Browsing teasers and sending intro requests.
2. After acceptance: access to contact details and project details, and to the data room after signing the NDA.
3. AI analysis tools paid with points, which include a project's monthly metrics only with the founder's explicit consent.

4.3 For sponsors

The "Sponsorship and Disclosure Policy" governs sponsors' rights and the limits on their visibility of projects.

4.4 Shared services

1. Optional AI services under the "AI Use Policy".
2. General procedures guides for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are general information and not legal or tax advice.
3. The Verified Handover service under the "Verified Handover Terms".
4. Notifications in-app and by email, and by WhatsApp for users who add their number and opt in.

5. Nature of the Platform

1. The platform is a technical intermediary for introductions and information organisation only, and is not a party to any agreement between users.
2. The Company takes no commission or percentage from any deal or financing, does not receive, hold or transfer funds on behalf of users, and does not provide escrow or trust-account services.
3. The platform does not offer securities, does not conduct crowdfunding, does not lend, does not provide investment, legal or tax advice, and does not guarantee any user or project.
4. The platform does not carry out any non-banking financial or securities activity requiring a licence from Egypt's Financial Regulatory Authority, Saudi Arabia's Capital Market Authority or the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority: it does not raise, hold, transfer or invest funds, does not offer securities, does not run crowdfunding and takes no commission. Its operation therefore does not require a licence from these authorities.
5. The "Nature of the Platform and Disclaimer" sets out these provisions in detail.

6. Fees and Payments

1. Registration is free. Founders can choose subscription plans (Free, "Growth" (نمو) and "Round" (جولة)), and prepaid points packs are available for optional services.
2. Payments are processed by the Kashier payment gateway; the platform does not store card data.
3. The "Subscriptions, Points and Refunds Policy" governs prices, renewal, cancellation, refunds and points validity.

7. Content and Intellectual Property

7.1 User content

1. You retain ownership of the content you upload.
2. You grant the Company a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, process and display content to the extent necessary to operate the services you request and according to the privacy settings you choose. The licence ends when the content or account is deleted, subject to the retention periods set out in the "Privacy Policy".
3. You confirm you have the right to upload and share the content and that it does not infringe third-party rights or any law.
4. The Company does not use private project content for marketing without your consent.

7.2 Platform ownership

1. The platform, its software, design, trademarks and knowledge bases remain the property of the Company or its licensors.
2. Using the platform grants you no right in it other than a personal, limited, revocable licence to use it in accordance with these terms.

7.3 Reporting infringement

Content alleged to infringe intellectual property rights can be reported to legal@octasolutions.net, stating the right claimed, the location of the content and the reporter's details.

8. Confidentiality and Data Rooms

1. Data-room content is available only to an investor whose intro was accepted and who signed the NDA by typing their name; the signed NDA and its version number are kept.
2. The NDA is a direct relationship between the founder and the investor. The Company is not a party to it and does not guarantee its performance; it provides a technical record of the signature and views.
3. Attempting to remove watermarks or bypass access controls is a serious breach of the "Acceptable Use Policy".

9. Electronic Acceptance and Signature

1. You accept these terms and policies electronically within the platform; we record the policy, its version, the time of acceptance and the IP address.
2. Contracts are signed electronically through the platform by typing the full name and giving explicit consent to the text, together with re-entering the account password where the platform requires it, as in Verified Handover contracts.
3. The platform records evidence of acceptance and signature, which, depending on the type of document, includes: the accepted or signed text identified by its version number or digital fingerprint, the typed name, the time and the IP address. The Company adopts this method of acceptance and signature for the platform's contracts and policies, and these records constitute evidence of acceptance, signature and actions within the limits set by law.
4. Where the law requires a specific form for a particular transaction, such as registering a share transfer with the competent authority or notarising or publicly registering the contract, meeting that form is the parties' own obligation, and they are also free to notarise or formally register any contract in addition to signing it on the platform. The platform does not guarantee that such requirements are met.

10. Acceptable Use

You must comply with the "Acceptable Use Policy". The Company may take graduated action on breach: warning, restriction, temporary suspension, then termination; the graduation may be skipped for serious breaches.

11. Beta Stage and Availability

1. The platform is currently in beta (version 0.9-beta). It may contain errors, and we may add, change or discontinue features.
2. We use reasonable care to keep the service available, without guaranteeing uninterrupted or error-free operation.
3. We will give advance notice where possible before permanently discontinuing a paid service, and the refund provisions of the "Subscriptions, Points and Refunds Policy" will apply.

12. Limitation of Liability

1. The platform is provided "as is" and "as available" to the extent permitted by law.
2. The Company is not liable for: investment or contracting decisions made by users; the accuracy of project or user data; acts of users or sponsors off the platform; errors in AI outputs; or indirect damages and loss of profit.
3. In any event, and without prejudice to mandatory rules, the Company's total liability to you does not exceed the amounts you paid to the Company in the twelve months preceding the event. [For review: liability cap and its validity against consumers]
4. This section does not limit liability for fraud, gross negligence or any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded, nor your mandatory rights as a consumer under Egypt's Consumer Protection Law No. 181 of 2018 or the law of your country of residence.

13. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify the Company for damages and claims arising directly from your breach of these terms or your infringement of third-party rights or the law, to the extent permitted by law. [For review: scope of the indemnity against consumers]

14. Suspension and Termination

1. You may delete your account at any time from Settings after entering your password; the deletion and anonymisation steps in the "Privacy Policy" then apply.
2. The Company may suspend or terminate an account for breach of these terms, on the order of a competent authority, or to protect users or the platform.
3. Termination does not affect rights and obligations accrued before it, nor provisions that by their nature survive (such as confidentiality, limitation of liability and governing law).
4. You can challenge any action through the "Complaints, Disputes and Contact" process.

15. Changes to the Terms

1. Terms and policies are versioned, and the last-updated date appears at the top of each.
2. We notify you of material changes in-app and by email, and you must accept the new version before continuing to use the service.
3. If you do not agree, you may stop using the platform and delete your account, with any applicable refund under the "Subscriptions, Points and Refunds Policy".

16. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

1. These terms are governed by the laws of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
2. Disputes fall under the jurisdiction of [For review: the courts of Cairo or arbitration], after the amicable complaints process is exhausted.
3. This does not deprive you of the mandatory protections granted to you as a consumer by the law of your country of residence.

17. General

1. If any provision is held invalid, the remaining provisions remain in force.
2. The Company's failure to exercise a right is not a waiver of it.
3. You may not assign your account or rights without the Company's consent. The Company may transfer its rights and obligations in a restructuring or acquisition, with notice to you.
4. Arabic is the reference language; the English version is provided for convenience. [For review: which version prevails in case of conflict]
5. The Company is not liable for delays caused by force majeure or circumstances beyond its reasonable control.

18. Contact

• General support: support@octasolutions.net
• Privacy and data protection: privacy@octasolutions.net
• Legal notices and complaints: legal@octasolutions.net
• Registered address: [Full registered address]