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Privacy Policy

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Privacy Policy

Growth Capital Ventures Limited (we, us, our) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

 

This policy (together with our terms and conditions and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

 

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 2018 (the Act), the data controller is Growth Capital Ventures Limited of Carlton House, 15 Parsons Way, County Durham, DL5 6ZE.

 

Please note: "GrowthFunders", "GCV Invest", "GCV Labs" and variations thereof are all trading names of Growth Capital Ventures Limited. This privacy policy applies in full to Growth Capital Ventures and its trading names.

Information we may collect from you

We may collect and process the following data about you:

  • Information that you provide by filling in forms on our site www.growthcapitalventures.co.uk (our site). This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our site, registering to become a member of our site, subscribing to any of our services (including, but not necessarily limited to, when making an investment through our site or seeking to raise capital for your business through our site), posting material on our site or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our site.
  • If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
  • We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
  • Details of transactions you carry out through our site and of the fulfilment of those transactions including, but not limited to, making an investment through our site or seeking to raise capital for your business through our site.
  • Details of your visits to our site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own purposes or otherwise and the resources that you access.

IP addresses

We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

Where we store your personal data

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, the provision of our services, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Uses made of the information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

  • To confirm your identity in order to create your membership account and ensure that you are eligible to use the services provided on our site.
  • To conduct any required anti-money laundering checks on you in connection with certain transactions you may conduct via our site.
  • In respect of entrepreneurs seeking capital for their business, to verify and approve the disclosures you make to potential investors.
  • In respect of investors looking to invest capital in a business, to confirm that you are eligible to make investments through our site.
  • To ensure and enable us to comply with all of our legal and regulatory obligations.
  • To ensure that content of our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
  • To monitor, improve and administer our site and the services we provide through it.
  • To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.
  • To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so.
  • To notify you about changes to our service.

We may also use your data, or permit selected third parties to use your data, to provide you with information about services which may be of interest to you and we or they may contact you about these by post and/or telephone.

If you are an existing member, we will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about services similar to those which you have previously used through us. If you are a new customer, and where we permit selected third parties to use your data, we (or they) will contact you by electronic means only if you have consented to this.

If you do not want us to use your data in this way, or to pass your details on to third parties for marketing purposes, please tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your data (the registration form).

We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to our advertisers, but we may provide them with aggregate information about our users (for example, we may inform them that 500 men aged under 30 have clicked on their advertisement on any given day). We may also use such aggregate information to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target (for example, women in SW1). We may make use of the personal data we have collected from you to enable us to comply with our advertisers’ wishes by displaying their advertisement to that target audience.

Disclosure of your information

We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties:

  • In connection with a transaction conducted through our site.
  • In the course of that third party or third parties providing services to us however we will take reasonable precautions to ensure that such third parties are obliged to keep your personal data confidential.
  • In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
  • If we or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
  • If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal or regulatory obligation (including any court order).
  • If we are required to disclose or share your personal data by any legitimate government body or arbitration panel.
  • If we are required to disclose or share your personal data in order to enforce or apply our terms of use https://www.growthcapitalventures.co.uk/terms-conditions and other agreements; or to protect our rights, property, or safety, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Communications

We may intercept record and/or monitor any communication(s) (including telephone calls or other electronic communications) between you and us. We may do so in order to resolve queries in the future and/or for the purpose of ensuring security, staff training and complying with our legal and/or regulatory responsibilities.

With regard to e-mail communications you should note that, as e-mails are not encrypted (and may therefore be intercepted by third parties) and as the identity of the sender cannot be confirmed, you must not provide your security details by e-mail and you should avoid sending to us any personal information by e-mail.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at Growth Capital Ventures Limited of Carlton House, 15 Parsons Court, Welbury Way, Aycliffe Business Park, County Durham, DL5 6ZE.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Access to information

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act.

Changes to our privacy policy

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to Growth Capital Ventures Limited of Carlton House, 15 Parsons Court, Welbury Way, Aycliffe Business Park, County Durham, DL5 6ZE.

Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.
Take 2 mins to learn more
Risk Summary

Estimated reading time: 2 min

Due to the potential for losses, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) considers this investment to be high risk.

What are the key risks?

  • You could lose all the money you invest
  • Most investments are shares in start-up businesses or bonds issued by them. Investors in these shares or bonds often lose 100% of the money they invested, as most start-up businesses fail.
  • Checks on the businesses you are investing in, such as how well they are expected to perform, may not have been carried out by the platform you are investing through. You should do your own research before investing.

You won't get your money back quickly

  • Even if the business you invest in is successful, it will likely take several years to get your money back.
  • The most likely way to get your money back is if the business is bought by another business or lists its shares on an exchange such as the London Stock Exchange. These events are not common.
  • Start-up businesses very rarely pay you back through dividends. You should not expect to get your money back this way.
  • Some platforms may give you the opportunity to sell your investment early through a 'secondary market' or 'bulletin board', but there is no guarantee you will find a buyer at the price you are willing to sell.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket

  • Putting all your money into a single business or type of investment for example, is risky. Spreading your money across different investments makes you less dependent on any one to do well. A good rule of thumb is not to invest more than 10% of your money in high-risk investments. Learn more here.

The value of your investment can be reduced

  • If your investment is shares, the percentage of the business that you own will decrease if the business issues more shares. This could mean that the value of your investment reduces, depending on how much the business grows. Most start-up businesses issue multiple rounds of shares.
  • These new shares could have additional rights that your shares don't have, such as the right to receive a fixed dividend, which could further reduce your chances of getting a return on your investment.

You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong

  • Protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), in relation to claims against failed regulated firms, does not cover poor investment performance. Try the FSCS investment protection checker.
  • Protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) does not cover poor investment performance. If you have a complaint against an FCA-regulated platform, FOS may be able to consider it. Learn more about FOS protection here.

If you are interested in learning more about how to protect yourself, visit the FCA's website here.

For further information about investment-based crowdfunding, visit the crowdfunding section of the FCA's website here.
Driving Growth.
Creating Value.
Delivering Impact.

Backed by

Growth Capital Ventures (GCV) is backed by funds managed by Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s leading private equity and alternative asset managers.