Personal data you provide to us

You transmit personal data to us when you submit information on the Website or correspond with us via LinkedIn, by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This includes information you provide when, for example, you join the Academy, contact us for an invitation, share your profile or apply as a startup using the contact form. You also provide us with personal information when you subscribe to our newsletter or report a problem with the Website.

The collected data may include

• Contact details, such as first and last name, e-mail address, date of birth, gender, etc.; and/or
• LinkedIn profile information, your current university, academic degree, personal history, announced post-graduation plans, skills and experience, and any other information you submit to us via the contact forms.

We process your personal data to respond to your inquiry, do business with you, assess your eligibility and process your application, and send you invitations to workshops, webinars, and events related to business creation. Additionally, we use your data to connect you with potential investors, mentors, and other key players, as well as to keep you informed about our updates, programs, and activities. Furthermore, we process your data to integrate you into our network, enabling ongoing exchange and collaboration, investments, and strategic alliances, identifying areas of interest and past investments. Your data will be processed solely for these purposes and in compliance with applicable data protection regulations.

Additionally, we may collect personal data from publicly available sources (e.g. LinkedIn, Google, etc.) for the above-mentioned purposes, in particular to conduct business with you, manage our contractual relationship, and assess potential investment opportunities. Any such collection and processing will be carried out in compliance with applicable data protection laws and with appropriate security and confidentiality measures.

Personal data collected automatically when you visit our Website

When you visit our Website, our servers temporarily store each access in a log file. The following technical data is collected without your intervention and stored by us until automated deletion, as in principle with every connection to a web server:

• the IP address of the requesting computer,
• the operating system of your computer,
• the browser you are using (type, version, and language),
• name of the IP address range,
• the date and time of the server request,
• the web page from which access was made (referrer URL), possibly with the search terms used, and
• the status code (for example, error message, debug information).

The collection and processing of these technical data are carried out for the purpose of enabling the use of our Website (establishing a connection), ensuring system security and stability over the long term, and optimizing our internet offering as well as for internal statistical purposes. It is within our legitimate interest to process such data to ensure a functioning Website service.

The IP address will also be used together with the other data in the event of attacks on the network infrastructure or other unauthorized or abusive use of the Website to identify offenders in connection with civil or criminal proceedings. The processing of this data is in our legitimate interest to track your visit to our Website and to improve the Website accordingly.

What are cookies?

Cookies help in many ways to make your visit to our Website easier, more enjoyable, and more meaningful.
Cookies are information files that your web browser automatically saves on your computer's hard drive when you visit our Website.

For further information, visit allaboutcookies.org.

What types of cookies do we use?

There are a number of different types of cookies. In particular, we use the following cookies:

• technically necessary cookies,
• performance cookies, and
• functional cookies

How can you manage cookies?

Most internet browsers automatically accept cookies. However, you can configure your browser so that no cookies are stored on your computer or a message always appears when you receive a new cookie.

Please, note that disabling cookies may prevent you from using all features of our Website.

How long will my data be kept?

We only store personal data for as long as is necessary for the above described uses unless a longer retention period is prescribed by statutory obligations (for example accounting or tax purposes) or justified by either our legitimate business interests or your consent.

Will my data be disclosed to third parties?

Access to your personal data is limited to employees and partners who need to process this data. These individuals and entities are obliged to maintain confidentiality and comply with applicable data protection laws.

If you are a founder, we may transfer investment-related personal data to Founderful Sàrl, an affiliated company based in Luxembourg, acting as a joint controller within the meaning of data protection legislations, if an audit identifies investment potential or if the transfer is necessary to initiate or fulfill pre-contractual or contractual obligations in connection with a potential investment. Likewise, the personal data of investors may be transferred to Founderful Sàrl to facilitate the execution of pre-contractual or contractual measures related to investment activities. Founderful Sàrl is obligated to process the data in compliance with applicable data protection laws, exclusively for the above-mentioned purposes and to implement the same security measures as Founderful.

We will only disclose your personal data with third parties as outlined in this Privacy Policy and as otherwise permitted by law or as permitted with your consent.

We may also, by contract or by law, transfer the processing of your personal data to a processor, i.e. a private person or federal body that processes personal data on our behalf, if the personal data is processed in the same way as we are authorised to do and no legal or contractual confidentiality obligation prohibits the transfer. We will ensure that the processor is able to ensure data security.

Who is our web host?

The web host of our Website is Vercel Inc., 440 N Barranca Ave #4133, Covina, CA 91723. The Websites are hosted on servers in Washington, D.C., USA.

Links and social plug-ins

We have embedded links on our Website to the websites of third parties. If you access such links from our Website, it may be that data is disclosed to the owner of the website that you are accessing. Please also note that we have no control over the privacy policies, contents, or security safeguards of the providers of these websites, and, as such, may not be held responsible in any way for the actions, as well as the privacy policy, content, and any other matter regarding these third parties.

We also offer you the possibility to directly send us an e-mail by clicking on the individual mail address. By doing so, the embedded link automatically opens up a blank e-mail. This creates an interface between our Website and your e-mail application.

In addition, we also use social plug-ins, such as LinkedIn. We offer you the possibility to directly share content or connect with us by clicking on the respective button on the Website with LinkedIn. We cannot influence what data these platforms process. Therefore, we recommend that you check their respective privacy policies before accessing these social media platforms.

Do we transfer personal data abroad?

We are entitled to transfer your personal data to third parties (contracted service providers) abroad for the purpose of the data processing described in this Privacy Policy. These are bound to protect data to the same extent as we are. If the level of data protection in a country does not correspond to that in Switzerland or in the EU/ EEA, we will contractually ensure that the protection of your personal data corresponds to that in Switzerland or in the EU/ EEA at all times.