Welcome to TrustVC and our platform at www.trustvc.org (our “Platform”). These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) constitute a legal agreement between you and TBLI Group governing the use of our Platform and our Services. We license use of our Platform to you on the basis of these Terms. We do not sell our Platform to you, and we remain the owner of our Platform at all times. 

 

  • ABOUT US
    1. We are TBLI Group Holdings B.V. of Herengracht 450-458, 1077 CA Amsterdam, Netherlands (“TBLI Group”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). 
    2. To contact us, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or write to TBLI PLC, c/o Data Protection Officer, 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG, United Kingdom..
    3. These Terms were last updated on Thursday, 13th of June, 2024, and are the current and valid version.
    4. The TrustVC logo as well as related marks, emblems and images are copyright of TBLI Group Holdings B.V. All rights reserved © 2024 TBLI Group Holdings B.V.

 

  • TERMS OF USE
    1. The provisions set out in these Terms govern your access to and your use of our Platform and shall constitute a legally binding agreement between you and us. We may change such terms from time to time and shall notify you accordingly if we do. If you do not agree to such terms, you must not use our Platform. 
    2. Subject to you agreeing to abide by these Terms, we hereby grant to you a revocable, non-exclusive and non-transferable license to use our Platform on these Terms.
    3. By registering for an Account, which involves providing us with certain mandatory and voluntary information as required for a successful registration and using our Platform, you agree and acknowledge that: 
      1. you have read the terms set out in these Terms and agree to be bound by and comply with them; 
      2. you are at least 18 years old; and
      3. you shall ensure that all Users of your Account abide by these Terms. 
    4. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Account and you are responsible for all activities that occur under your Account. You agree that all actions carried out by any person through your Account shall be deemed to be an act carried out by you, and you shall ensure that all persons who have access to and use your Account are authorized to do so. We are not responsible for any loss, damage or liabilities arising as a result of or in connection with the wrongful, fraudulent or illegal use of your Account.
    5. Save to the extent permitted by us in writing, you are not permitted to use, or submit any content to our Platform or any of our affiliated websites to advertise, promote or market any products or services of any third party or yourself.
    6. The following additional terms also apply to your use of our Platform and form part of these Terms: 
      1. Our Privacy Policy 
      2. Our Cookie Policy 
      3. Our Community Guidelines

 

  • YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH US
    1. trustvc.org is a review portal where users share their experiences with Private Equity and Venture Capital Firms and to allow Private Equity and Venture Capital Firms to collect, manage, aggregate and display reviews. We do not post, create or publish reviews and we accept no responsibility for the content posted by users; in particular not for its completeness, accuracy, legality or topicality.
    2. As a rule, use is free of charge. If, in exceptional cases, costs are charged, we will inform the user of this before the service is utilized. The same shall apply in the event that services previously offered free of charge become subject to a charge.
    3. We reserve the right to change the nature or scope of the individual services at any time or to discontinue individual services.
    4. TBLI Group assumes no responsibility for the content posted by users; in particular not for its completeness, accuracy, legality or topicality.
    5. This applies in particular if user-generated content violates the personal rights of third parties (such as the general right of personality, the right to one's own image, etc.) as well as the intellectual property rights of third parties (copyrights, trademark rights, etc.).
    6. TBLI Group merely provides a platform for the content of users and does not adopt this third-party content as its own. TBLI Group is neither able to continuously monitor this third-party content nor can it reasonably be expected to do so without indications of a specific infringement of rights.
    7. If TBLI Group becomes aware of content that violates these Terms, TBLI Group shall react appropriately and, if necessary, remove the content within a reasonable period of time.
    8. TBLI Group shall also not be liable for any misuse of the content posted by users by other users or third parties.
    9. In the event of a mere unconfirmed suspicion of an offense, TBLI Group shall not be liable for the failure to take action. This applies until the time of confirmation of the suspicion.
    10. For hyperlinks and content embedded by the user on other websites not belonging to TBLI Group, which cannot be controlled by TBLI Group, TBLI Group assumes no liability for the content, data protection guidelines or activities of these external websites. It is neither possible nor reasonable for TBLI Group to continuously monitor the content of these pages unless there are concrete indications of a legal violation. If TBLI Group obtains positive knowledge, these links will be removed within a reasonable period of time.

 

  • UPLOADING CONTENT TO OUR PLATFORM
    1. You irrevocably and unconditionally represent and warrant that any of your content uploaded to our Platform complies with our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, the Dutch GDPR Implementation Act (Uitvoeringswet Algemene Verordening gegevensbescherming) (“UAVG”) and the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and any other applicable laws.
    2. You are fully responsible for your content uploaded to our Platform. We will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for: i) the content or accuracy of any content or data uploaded by you, by us on your behalf, or any other user of our Platform; or ii) the loss of any content or data provided to us by you. You should keep a record of all such content and data. 
    3. We will only use the content uploaded by you for the purposes of carrying out the Services, carrying out our obligations in this Agreement and any other purpose expressly set out in this Agreement or otherwise agreed between us. We will not otherwise disclose or distribute the content uploaded by you, save for when required by law, a court of competent jurisdiction or any governmental or regulatory authority. 
    4. We may use the content uploaded by you for the purpose of data analytics or to implement artificial intelligence or machine learning. Any such content shall be anonymised and used only for the purposes of improving the Services and our response to users of the Platform. 
    5. We have the right to disclose your identity to any third party claiming that any content posted or uploaded by you to our Platform constitutes a violation of their rights under applicable law.
    6. We have the right to delete any content uploaded to our Platform if, in our opinion, it does not comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.

 

  • ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
    1. You may use our Platform only for lawful purposes. You may not use our Platform:
      1. in any way that breaches any applicable local or international laws or regulations;
      2. in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
      3. to send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our content standards as set out in our prevailing terms and conditions as amended from time to time; and
      4. to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.
    2. You also agree:
      1. not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our Platform in contravention of the provisions of our Terms; and
      2. not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
      3. any part of our Platform;
      4. any equipment or network on which our Platform is stored; 
      5. any software used in the provision of our Platform; or 
      6. any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.
    3. Except as expressly set out in this Agreement or as permitted by any applicable law, you undertake:
      1. save for internal distribution amongst your employees and persons authorized by you for your internal business purposes, and any other purposes contemplated under these Terms or the Platform, not to reproduce, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publish, display, communicate, transmit, sell, exploit or use the whole or any part of any Service, our Platform or any of the contents therein for any commercial or other purposes; 
      2. not to disassemble, decompile, reverse-engineer or create derivative works based on the whole or any part of the source code of our Platform nor attempt to do any such thing, or to reproduce, display or otherwise provide access to the Services, our Platform or any of the contents therein, including but not limited to framing, mirroring, linking, spidering, scraping or any other technological means;
      3. not to provide or otherwise make available our Platform in whole or in part (including but not limited to program listings, object and source program listings, object code and source code), in any form to any person without prior written consent from us; 
      4. to include our copyright notice on all entire and partial copies you make of our Platform on any medium; 
      5. to comply with all applicable technology control or export laws and regulations; and
      6. not to disrupt, disable, or otherwise impair the proper working of the Services, our Platform or our servers, such as through hacking, cyber-attacks (including but not limited to denial-of-service attacks), tampering or reprogramming. 
      7. We operate a safe space for people to engage, learn, share, and network. We operate a zero-tolerance policy with regards to the abuse of our service users or staff. Personal or targeted insults, threats, obscene and aggressive comments directed at other service users or at staff will not be tolerated. Users who persist in engaging in this way may be excluded from our services. Please report any abusive posts or incidences of cyber-bullying to our admin.

 

  • COMMUNITY GUIDELINES
    1. We strive to be a trusted and transparent place for users to search for reliable Private Equity and Venture Capital Firms, research Private Equity and Venture Capital Firms. Our Community Guidelines and moderation policies take into consideration applicable laws in the different international markets in which we operate.
    2. Our core principles
      1. Be respectful when speaking to others; this helps to create great relationships and a great community. Strong communities are built on strong relationships.
      2. Do not discriminate or defame
      3. We do not tolerate racism, hateful language, defamation, or discrimination of any kind.
      4. Don’t impersonate anyone else, including, but not limited to, any TrustVC staff, Private Equity and Venture Capital Firms, Service Users, or suggest that you have an affiliation with a person or association if you do not. 
      5. Do not engage in harmful activity
      6. Be constructive
    3. When using TrustVC 
      1. Do not harass others or organize, promote, or participate in harassment. Disagreements happen and are normal, but making continuous, repetitive, or severe negative comments or circumventing a block or ban can cross the line into harassment and is not okay.
      2. Do not organize, promote, or participate in hate speech or hateful conduct. It’s unacceptable to attack a person or a community based on attributes such as their race, ethnicity, caste, national origin, sex, gender identity, gender presentation, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, age, serious illness, disabilities, or other protected classifications.
      3. Do not make threats of violence or threaten to harm others. This includes indirect or suggestive threats, as well as sharing or threatening to share someone’s personal information.
      4. Do not use TrustVC for the organization, promotion, or support of violent extremism. This also includes glorifying violent events, the perpetrators of violent acts, or similar behaviors.
      5. We strongly discourage and may take action against vigilante behavior, as it can interfere with our investigation and ability to report to law enforcement.
      6. Do not share false or misleading information. Content that is false, misleading, and can lead to significant risk of physical or societal harm may not be shared on TrustVC. We may remove content if we reasonably believe its spread could result in damage to physical infrastructure, injury of others, obstruction of participation in civic processes, or the endangerment of public health.
      7. Do not engage in activities intended to cause damage or gain unauthorized access to another user's account, network, or system. This includes impersonating TrustVC staff, distributing malware, authentication token theft, phishing, DDOS, and other hacking or social engineering techniques.
      8. Do not distribute or provide access to content involving the hacking, cracking, or distribution of stolen goods, pirated content, or accounts. This includes sharing or selling game cheats or hacks.
      9. Do not use TrustVC to spam, manipulate engagement, or disrupt other people’s experience, including trying to influence or disrupt conversations using bots, fake accounts, multiple accounts, or other automation. This includes purchasing or selling methods of artificially increasing membership, such as via advertisements or botting.
      10. These guidelines will continue to evolve over time. This means we may take action against a user, server, or content that violates the spirit of these guidelines when we encounter a new threat or harm that is not explicitly covered in the current version. Thanks for doing your part. If you come across content or accounts that you believe may violate our Community Guidelines, please let us know so we can review and take appropriate action.

 

  • SUSPENSION
    1. We will determine, in our discretion, whether there has been a breach of these Terms and our Community Standards through your use of our Services. 
    2. When a breach of these Terms and our Community Standards has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate. 
    3. Failure to comply with these Terms and our Community Standards constitutes a material breach of these Terms upon which you are permitted to use our Services, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:
      1. immediate temporary or permanent cancellation of your right to use our Services;
      2. immediate temporary or permanent removal of any Contribution;
      3. issuance of a warning to you;
      4. legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including but not limited to reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach;
      5. further legal action against you; and/or
      6. disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.
    4. We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of these Terms and our Community Standards. The responses described in this policy are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

 

  • INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
    1. You acknowledge that all intellectual property rights in our Platform anywhere in the world belong to us, that rights in our Platform are licensed (not sold) to you, and that you have no rights in, or to, our Platform other than the right to use them in accordance with these Terms.
    2. Any intellectual property rights in content uploaded by you to our Platform shall continue to belong to you or their respective owners. You agree that you grant us a royalty-free and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, publish and display such intellectual property rights for the purposes of performing the Services, promotional purposes, internal administrative purposes and any other purposes set out in these Terms, including for the purpose of improving the Services and our responses to users of the Platform. 
    3. You acknowledge that you have no right to have access to our Platform in source code form.

 

  • WARRANTIES
    1. While we make all efforts to maintain the accuracy of the information on our Platform, we provide the Services, Platform and all related content on an “as is” and “as available” basis, unless otherwise specified in writing. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of any of the foregoing, unless otherwise specified in writing. 
    2. To the full extent permissible by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, relating to our Platform or any Services, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. We do not warrant that the Services, our Platform, the related content, or electronic communications sent by us are free of viruses or other harmful components. 
    3. You agree that your use of the Platform is at your sole risk. You will not hold TBLI Group or its third-party service providers, licensors or suppliers, as applicable, responsible for any loss or damage that results from your access to or use of the Platform , including without limitation any loss or damage to any of your computers or data. 

 

  • TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS AND RESPONSIBILITY
    1. Users are responsible for ensuring that the technical requirements for access to and use of the respective services are met. 
    2. This applies in particular to the hardware and operating system software used, the connection to the Internet, the firewall settings (if any) and the current browser software. 
    3. The User shall carry out necessary and reasonable adjustment measures himself/herself and shall bear the costs for the Internet connection in order to be able to access the services.
    4. TBLI Group does not guarantee that the services offered can actually be used with the User's device.

 

  • ADVERTISERS 
    1. We allow advertisers to display their advertisements and links and other information in certain areas of our website. If you are an advertiser, you take full responsibility for any advertisements you place on the website and any services provided on the website or products sold through those advertisements. 
    2. Further, as an advertiser you warrant and represent that you possess all rights and authority to place advertisements on our website, including, but not limited to, intellectual property rights, publicity rights, and contractual rights.
    3. We simply provide the space to place such advertisements and links, and we have no other relationship with advertisers. 

 

  • LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
    1. We are not liable for the completeness, accuracy or correctness of any information uploaded on our Platform and any related content. You expressly agree that your use of the Services and our Platform, including reliance on any Third-Party Advice, is at your sole risk. 
    2. You agree not to use the Services, our Platform and the related content for any resale purposes, and we have no liability to you, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, arising under or in connection with these Terms (including but not limited to the use of, or inability to use, the Services, our Platform or any other website or software) for:
      1. loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
      2. business interruption;
      3. loss of anticipated savings;
      4. loss or corruption of data or information;
      5. loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or
      6. any other indirect or consequential loss or damage.
    3. Nothing in these Terms shall limit or exclude our liability for:
      1. death or personal injury resulting from our negligence; 
      2. fraud; and/or
      3. any other matter in respect of which we are prohibited under applicable law from limiting or excluding our liability.
    4. These Terms set out the full extent of our obligations and liabilities in respect of the supply of the Services and our Platform. Except as expressly stated in these Terms, there are no conditions, warranties, representations or other terms, express or implied, that are binding on us. Any condition, warranty, representation or other term concerning the supply of the Services and our Platform which might otherwise be implied into, or incorporated in, these Terms whether by statute, common law or otherwise, is excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

 

  • INDEMNITY

You agree to indemnify and hold us, our related corporations and our respective directors, officers, employees, agents and representatives, independent contractors, licensees, successors and assigns harmless from and against all claims, losses, expenses, damages and costs (including but not limited to direct, incidental, consequential, exemplary and indirect damages), and reasonable legal fees, resulting from or arising out of your act, default or omission, whether in your use of our Platform, Services, and/or any websites or software in relation thereto or otherwise, and whether in respect of your breach of these Terms or any laws or regulations or otherwise. 

 

  • OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS
    1. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms to another organisation, but this will not affect your rights or obligations under these Terms. 
    2. You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under these Terms to another person if we agree in writing.
    3. No joint venture, partnership or agency or employment relationship has arisen by reason of these Terms.
    4. These Terms and any document expressly referred to in it constitutes the entire agreement between us.
    5. If we fail to insist that you perform any of your obligations under these Terms, or if we do not enforce our rights against you, or if we delay in doing so, that will not mean that we have waived our rights against you and will not mean that you do not have to comply with those obligations. If we do waive a default by you, we will only do so in writing, and that will not mean that we will automatically waive any later default by you. 
    6. Each of the conditions of these Terms operates separately. If any court or competent authority decides that any of them are unlawful or unenforceable, the remaining conditions will remain in full force and effect. 
    7. The Parties shall attempt to resolve any dispute arising out of or relating to this Agreement through negotiations. If negotiations do not resolve the matter within 30 days of receipt of a written invitation to negotiate, the parties will attempt to resolve the dispute in good faith through an agreed Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”) procedure. If the ADR procedure does not resolve the matter within 30 days of the initiation of that procedure, or if either Party will not participate in the ADR procedure, the dispute may be referred to arbitration by either Party.
    8. These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Netherlands, without regard to its choice of law provisions.