Terms of Service

What Funder is (and isn't)

Funder is a marketplace where founders raise money in milestones. Founders publish a listing; investors browse, do their own diligence, and make offers; both sides negotiate in a deal room, sign a contract in-app, and move money through escrow that releases tranche by tranche as milestone proof is approved.

Funder is the venue, not a participant. We are not a party to any deal, we are not a broker, investment adviser, accountant, or law firm, and we do not vet, endorse, or recommend any listing, founder, or investor. Decisions you make on Funder are yours.

Who can use Funder

• You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter contracts.
• The information you give us must be accurate, and kept accurate.
• One account per person. Your account is yours alone — you're responsible for everything done while signed in with it.
• It's your responsibility to make sure that raising or investing through Funder is legal where you live.

Verification and badges

Identity and business checks are optional. A Verified badge means the named check passed — nothing more. It is not an endorsement, and it is not a guarantee that a person is trustworthy or that a deal will succeed.

If you're a founder

• Your listing must be truthful and kept up to date.
• Metrics you publish are self-reported and attributed to you. Inventing or inflating them is a serious violation.
• Milestone proof must be genuine. Submitting false proof to trigger an escrow release is fraud.
• You must have the rights to everything you upload (deck, demo, logos, documents).
• Signing up and listing are free. Funder charges a 1% success fee on successfully funded rounds, deducted from escrow when it closes.

If you're an investor

• Early-stage investing is high-risk. You can lose your entire investment. Only commit money you can afford to lose.
• You declare your own investor status when you sign up, and you're responsible for its accuracy.
• Do your own diligence. Nothing on Funder — listings, badges, metrics, or anything we publish — is investment, legal, or tax advice.

Deals, contracts, and signing

Every deal is between its participants. The contract templates in the app are provided as-is, for convenience — they are not legal advice, and we strongly encourage you to have your own lawyer review any agreement before you sign. The signing flow asks you to acknowledge exactly this.

Clicking “I agree & sign” is a binding electronic signature. We record who signed, when, from which IP address and device, and tamper-evident digital fingerprints (hashes) of the document before and after signing.

Some deal structures (equity, SAFE) may be unavailable in some jurisdictions while regulatory review is pending.

Escrow and money

Payments run through our payment provider, Stripe. Escrowed money is held and is not the founder's until a tranche is released — releases happen when the investor (or, in crowd rounds, the backers' review process) approves the milestone's proof.

Crowd rounds pool backers behind a single nominee entity (an SPV) that acts as the one counterparty to the founder. Crowd milestones use a review window: backers can object during it, a failed milestone gets one repair attempt, and if repair fails the remaining escrow is refunded to backers pro-rata. The exact flow is shown in the app before you commit.

What you can't do

• Misrepresent who you are, what you've built, or your numbers.
• Use Funder for fraud, money laundering, or moving money you're not lawfully allowed to move.
• Harass, threaten, or deceive other users.
• Upload content that is illegal or that infringes someone else's rights.
• Probe, overload, or break the platform's security, or scrape it.

Your content

You own what you upload. You grant us the licence we need to host and display it in order to run the service — to your counterparties in a deal, and, for published listings, to signed-in investors. We can remove content that breaks these terms.

Reports, suspension, and the audit log

Anyone can flag a listing or a user. We review reports, and serious or repeated violations can lead to suspension. Key platform actions are recorded in an append-only audit log — this protects both sides of every deal.

Early access, no warranties

Funder is in early access: features may change, pause, or occasionally misbehave, and the service is provided “as is”, without warranties, to the extent the law allows. We do not guarantee that a raise will fund, that a startup will succeed, or that money released for an approved milestone can be recovered.

Liability

To the maximum extent the law allows: we are not liable for losses arising from deals between users — including lost investments, failed startups, or disputes over milestones. For everything else, our total liability to you is limited to the fees you paid Funder in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

Closing your account

You can stop using Funder at any time and ask us to close your account. Records that document a binding deal — signed contracts, escrow ledger entries, cap-table records, and audit entries — are kept even after closure, because your counterparty and the law may need them.

Changes to these terms

When we change these terms we'll update the date at the top, and flag material changes in the app. Using Funder after a change means you accept the new terms.

Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates, and disputes about the platform itself go to the courts of Dubai, UAE, unless mandatory law where you live says otherwise. Contracts signed between users on Funder choose their own dispute forum (for example DIFC or ADGM arbitration) — that choice lives in each contract, not in these terms.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Reach us through the support form inside the app.