Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Persephone ("we," "us," "our") operates the investor intelligence platform at seedpersephone.com (the "Service").

For privacy queries: privacy@seedpersephone.com.

2. Scope

This Policy covers:

• Visitors to our website;
• Founders and other users who register for the Service ("Users");
• Investors, fund partners, and other professionals whose information appears in the Service as a result of our enrichment processing ("Investor Data Subjects").

3. Personal data we process

3.1 User account data

When you register, we collect: name, business email, company name, role, password (hashed), billing details, and information you voluntarily provide about your startup (sector, stage, traction).

3.2 User-generated content

Information you upload or generate using the Service: target lists, draft outreach, notes, engagement records.

3.3 Connected accounts (LinkedIn, email)

If you connect a third-party account (e.g., LinkedIn, your email provider) via official authentication (OAuth), we access only data made available through that authenticated session, on your instruction, to provide the requested service. We do not scrape these platforms.

3.4 Investor enrichment data

To provide the Service, we process information about investment funds and professionals:

• Fund-level data: name, location, investment thesis, sector and stage focus, portfolio companies, fund size, recent activity.
• Professional contact information: name, role, employer, business email, professional biography, links to publicly published content.

3.5 Usage and technical data

Log data, IP address, device and browser information, cookies, and analytics events.

3.6 Investor contact research (Article 14 notice)

Where you are an investment professional, Persephone may process publicly available information about your professional role and career — for example your position, employer, notable investments, and statements you have published professionally — to assess how relevant an outreach would be for a founder using the Service. We retain the source links for the information we hold so its origin stays traceable. This information is obtained from the sources described in Section 4, not from you directly. We process it on the basis of our legitimate interest in making founder outreach relevant rather than indiscriminate (see Section 5), and we retain it for up to 12 months from the last time it was refreshed (90 days where our research found nothing). You may object to this processing or ask us to erase the research we hold about you at any time via our Opt-Out page or by emailing privacy@seedpersephone.com; see Section 9 for the full list of your rights.

4. Where we get this data

• From you directly, when you register and use the Service;
• From licensed third-party data providers — specifically Crunchbase and Apollo — under their commercial terms and data protection arrangements;
• From publicly published content authored by or about investment funds (fund websites, press releases, regulatory filings, public portfolio announcements);
• From you, where you connect third-party accounts.

We do not scrape LinkedIn or any other platform in violation of that platform's terms of service.

5. Why we process it (and our legal basis)

5.1 Providing the Service

Legal basis: performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).

5.2 Investor enrichment and matching

Legal basis: legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). Our legitimate interest is to operate an investor intelligence service that helps founders identify funds whose stated thesis aligns with their startup. We have assessed that this interest is not overridden by the rights of investment professionals because the data concerns individuals in their professional capacity, is sourced from licensed providers and public professional disclosures, processing is limited to fund- and role-related context, we do not generate persistent psychological profiles of named individuals, and any data subject may exercise the rights set out in Section 9.

5.3 Communications with Users

Legal basis: performance of a contract and legitimate interests. Service messages, support, security alerts, product updates.

5.4 Marketing

Legal basis: consent or legitimate interests, depending on jurisdiction. You can opt out at any time.

5.5 Legal compliance

Legal basis: compliance with legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)).

6. Who we share it with

• Sub-processors supporting our infrastructure: hosting, database, email, payments (Stripe), analytics, AI providers. Current list available on request.
• Our licensed data providers (Crunchbase, Apollo) where requests must be routed upstream;
• Professional advisors (lawyers, accountants);
• Authorities where required by law;
• Successors in connection with a corporate transaction.

We do not sell personal data.

7. International transfers

Personal data may be transferred to and processed outside the EEA or UK, including the United States. Where we do, we rely on appropriate safeguards under Articles 44–49 GDPR, including European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum where applicable.

8. How long we keep it

• User account data: for the duration of your account and 12 months thereafter;
• User-generated content: deleted within 30 days of account closure;
• Investor enrichment data: refreshed continuously; individual records removed on request;
• Billing and tax records: 10 years as required by tax law;
• Logs: 12 months.

9. Your rights

Subject to applicable law, you can:

• Access the data we hold about you;
• Request correction;
• Request erasure ("right to be forgotten");
• Restrict processing;
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests, including profiling;
• Receive your data in a portable format;
• Withdraw consent (where processing is based on consent);
• Lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority.

To exercise any right: privacy@seedpersephone.com or use our opt-out form. We respond within one month (extendable by two further months in complex cases).

Where data was sourced from a third-party provider, we forward your request to them and confirm the action taken.

10. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures: encryption in transit, access controls, vendor due diligence, incident response procedures.

11. Children

The Service is not directed to anyone under 18 and we do not knowingly collect their data.

12. Changes

We may update this Policy. Material changes will be notified by email or in-app. The "Last updated" date reflects the most recent version.

13. Contact and supervisory authority

Privacy contact: privacy@seedpersephone.com
Lead supervisory authority: Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (Italy).