Terms & Conditions

1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS

By accessing and using Portugal VC Directory ("the Service"), you accept and agree to be bound by these Terms & Conditions. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use the Service.

2. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICE

Portugal VC Directory is a free, publicly accessible directory of venture capital firms operating in Portugal. The Service provides information including firm names, investment stages, sectors, and other publicly available data to help founders and investors navigate the Portuguese VC ecosystem.

The Service also offers the following free tools:

• AI Matchmaker ("Looking for Investment?"): An automated tool that, based on the startup details you enter (founder name, email, startup name, optional website/deck link, one-liner, sector, stage and optional fundraising range), returns an AI-generated, ranked shortlist of Portuguese VC firms from our directory that may fit your profile, together with suggested intro angles. The output is displayed to you in-browser. In parallel, a copy of the details you submit is sent to our inbox so we can keep them on file and, at our sole discretion, reach out if we believe we can help. We do not automatically forward your submission to any VC.
• Contact Form: A general enquiry form for directory updates, partnerships, and other communications.

3. ACCURACY OF INFORMATION

While we strive to keep all information accurate and up-to-date, Portugal VC Directory makes no warranties or representations regarding the completeness, accuracy, or reliability of any information displayed on the Service. All data is sourced from publicly available information and may not reflect the most current status of any firm.

The inclusion of any firm in this directory does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. AI Matchmaker scores, rankings and suggested intro angles are automated estimates produced by a large language model on the basis of publicly available criteria and the information you provide; they do not represent the likelihood of receiving investment, an offer of securities, or any form of investment advice. Users should independently verify all information before making any investment or business decisions.

4. AI MATCHMAKER TERMS (PORTUGAL)

The "Looking for Investment? / AI Matchmaker" feature (the "Matcher") is a free, automated information tool operated from Portugal. It is not investment advice, financial recommendation, placement, brokerage, reception or transmission of orders, or intermediation of securities under Portuguese or EU law (in particular Directive 2014/65/EU – MiFID II, Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 – Prospectus Regulation, and the Portuguese Securities Code / Código dos Valores Mobiliários). Portugal VC Directory is not a financial intermediary, tied agent, or authorised representative of any venture capital fund or manager registered with the Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários (CMVM) or any other regulator, and does not carry on any regulated activity for or on behalf of you or any VC firm.

4.1 What you submit

By submitting the form you provide: founder name, email, startup name, optional website or deck URL, one-liner, sector, stage and (optionally) fundraising range. You confirm that (a) the information is accurate and not misleading, (b) you are legally authorised to share it on behalf of the startup, (c) it does not contain confidential information of any third party, (d) it does not contain any material non-public information that would restrict its disclosure under securities laws, and (e) it does not constitute a public offer of securities or a marketing communication of a collective investment undertaking.

4.2 How the Matcher works

• Your input is sent to a third-party large language model, together with a compact projection of our public VC directory (firm name, type, stages, sectors, ticket, thesis excerpt).
• The model returns a ranked shortlist of firms that appear to fit your profile, with short rationales and suggested intro angles, which is displayed to you in-browser.
• We do not automatically forward, email, transmit or otherwise disclose your submission to any VC firm. Any outreach to a fund on the shortlist is your own decision and responsibility.
• A copy of the details you submit is also delivered to our internal inbox so we can keep them on file and, entirely at our sole discretion and only where we believe we can add value, contact you directly to discuss your fundraise. We will not share your submission with any third party without a further, separate action by you.
• The Matcher's output is generated by AI and may be incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate ("hallucinations"). It must not be relied on as a substitute for your own due diligence or professional advice.

4.3 No guarantee

This is a best-effort informational service. We do not guarantee that any firm listed in the shortlist is actively investing, that it will read, reply to, take a meeting on, or invest in your startup, nor do we guarantee any particular timeline or outcome. Rankings are algorithmic, subjective and non-appealable. The Matcher may be modified, throttled, rate-limited or discontinued at any time without notice.

4.4 No NDA / confidentiality

Submitting information through the Matcher does not create any non-disclosure, confidentiality, fiduciary or advisory obligation on Portugal VC Directory. Do not include trade secrets, source code, personal data of third parties, sensitive personal data (Art. 9 GDPR), financial projections you consider confidential, or any information you would not be comfortable sharing with a prospective investor without an NDA in place.

4.5 Data protection (GDPR / RGPD)

Personal data submitted via the Matcher is processed in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the Portuguese Data Protection Act (Lei n.º 58/2019, de 8 de agosto). Processing details:

• Controller: Portugal VC Directory (portugalvc.com), reachable via the contact page.
• Legal basis (Art. 6(1)(a) & (b) GDPR): your explicit consent, given by submitting the form after accepting these Terms, and the pre-contractual steps taken at your request to run the Matcher and, where applicable, follow up with you directly about your fundraise.
• Purpose: generating your AI-ranked shortlist, storing your submission in our internal inbox, and any follow-up communication we may send you about your submission.
• Recipients / processors: (i) our email service provider used to receive the internal copy of the submission; (ii) the third-party AI provider hosting the large language model, acting as a processor on our behalf. We do not sell, licence or share your submission with any VC firm.
• International transfers: the AI provider and email service may process data outside the EEA. Where that is the case, transfers rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (Art. 46 GDPR) and/or an adequacy decision, and providers are contractually bound not to use your data to train their models where an opt-out is available.
• Retention: submissions are retained for up to 12 months from the date of submission for follow-up and audit purposes, after which they are deleted or anonymised. Prompts sent to the AI provider are not persisted by us beyond the response and are subject to the provider's own retention terms. You may request earlier deletion at any time.
• Your rights: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, and withdrawal of consent at any time (without affecting the lawfulness of processing already carried out). Requests via the contact page.
• Automated processing: the ranking is produced by an automated system but has no legal or similarly significant effect on you within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR; it is merely informational and any decision to contact a firm is taken by you.
• Complaints: you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Portuguese supervisory authority, the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (CNPD): www.cnpd.pt.

4.6 No fees, no carry, no success fee

The Matcher is free. Portugal VC Directory does not charge founders, and does not accept success fees, retainers, warrants, equity, advisory shares, referral commissions or any other consideration from founders or VCs in connection with the Matcher or any introduction that may result from it.

4.7 Acceptable use

You agree not to submit: fraudulent, misleading or impersonating content; regulated financial products (public offers of securities, tokens, ICOs, collective investment undertakings) that would require authorisation you do not hold; content that infringes third-party IP or privacy rights; automated or high-volume submissions; prompts designed to manipulate, jailbreak or exfiltrate data from the underlying AI model; or content that is unlawful under Portuguese or EU law. We may refuse, throttle or delete any submission at our sole discretion.

5. USE OF THE SERVICE

You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You agree not to:

• Use the Service in any way that violates applicable laws or regulations
• Scrape, crawl, or use automated means to collect data from the Service for commercial redistribution
• Attempt to interfere with or disrupt the Service's infrastructure
• Use data obtained from the Service for unsolicited bulk communications (spam)
• Submit false, misleading, or fraudulent information through any form or tool on the Service
• Use the AI Matchmaker to submit spam, promotional content unrelated to startup fundraising, offensive material, or prompts designed to manipulate the underlying AI model

6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The Service's design, layout, and original content are protected by applicable intellectual property laws. Individual firm data is sourced from public records and firm websites. Firm names, logos, and trademarks belong to their respective owners.

7. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Portugal VC Directory shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, the Service. This includes but is not limited to:

• Damages arising from reliance on any information obtained through the Service
• Any loss resulting from the use of the AI Matchmaker, including reliance on its rankings, rationales, suggested intro angles, or any AI-generated output (including inaccuracies or "hallucinations")
• Any loss resulting from your own outreach to firms listed on the shortlist, including failure to receive responses or missed investment opportunities
• Any damages caused by the unavailability, degradation or discontinuation of any feature or tool, or by the acts or omissions of third-party AI or email providers

8. NO ADVISORY RELATIONSHIP

Portugal VC Directory does not provide investment, legal, tax or financial advice, and does not perform any regulated activity under Portuguese or EU law. The Service is an informational tool only. No advisory, fiduciary, agency or professional relationship is created between you and Portugal VC Directory by using the Service or the AI Matchmaker.

9. THIRD-PARTY LINKS

The Service may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites. Clicking external links is at your own risk.

10. DATA PRIVACY

Portugal VC Directory collects personal data only through voluntary form submissions (Contact form and AI Matchmaker). Data collected through these forms is processed solely for the stated purpose of each form. We use privacy-respecting, anonymised analytics for aggregate website usage statistics.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties, and we do not share data submitted via the AI Matchmaker with any VC firm. Processing details, sub-processors and international transfers applicable to the AI Matchmaker are set out in Section 4. For questions about data handling or to exercise your GDPR rights, contact us via the contact page.

11. SERVICE AVAILABILITY & MODIFICATIONS

We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service (including the AI Matchmaker) at any time without notice. We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. Changes will be effective immediately upon posting. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms.

12. GOVERNING LAW

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Portugal, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Any disputes arising from these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Lisbon, Portugal.

13. CONTACT

For questions about these Terms & Conditions, please visit our contact page.