Terms Of Use
Welcome to the Ridge Ventures website at www.ridge.vc (this “Website”). Your use of this Website, including the content, materials and information available on or through this Website (together, the “Materials”), is governed by these Terms of Use (these “Terms”) which include the Privacy Statement provided below. By using this Website, you acknowledge and represent that: (i) you have read these Terms; (ii) you accept and will be bound by these Terms; and (iii) you are authorized to be subject to these Terms. If you do not accept these Terms, do not use this Website.
Who We Are
Ridge Ventures consists of a collection of investment funds and other entities, and includes the IDG Ventures SF and IDG Ventures USA funds and their affiliated entities. This Website is maintained and operated by Audion Management Company, LLC, which is a back-office and administrative service entity within Ridge Ventures. In accordance with industry custom, this Website occasionally uses terminology that may be interpreted to suggest that Ridge Ventures is actually a single entity. However, there is no such single entity and all of the entities that comprise Ridge Ventures have their own separate legal existence.
Materials
All Materials are provided “as-is” and “as-available,” and all warranties, express, implied or statutory, are disclaimed (including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement of intellectual property and proprietary rights). The Materials may contain errors or other problems. You should be aware that a significant portion of the Materials includes or consists of information that has been provided by third parties and has not been validated or verified by Ridge Ventures. Your use of this Website and use or reliance upon any of the Materials is solely at your own risk. In no event will Ridge Ventures, its affiliates, agents, licensors or suppliers be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken by you in reliance on this Website or the Materials.
In connection with Ridge Ventures’ investment activities, Ridge Ventures often becomes subject to a variety of confidentiality obligations to funds, investors, portfolio companies and other third parties. Any statements Ridge Ventures makes may be affected by those confidentiality obligations, with the result that Ridge Ventures may be prohibited from making full disclosures. Without limitation on the effect of other warnings and disclaimers set forth in these Terms, you should interpret any statements Ridge Ventures makes (on this Website or otherwise) in that context.
Please ensure that your own computer security is comprehensive and up-to-date. Ridge Ventures accepts no responsibility for viruses, malware or other malicious or damaging software contained in the Materials or otherwise.
No Offer or Solicitation
Nothing on this Website should be considered an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, an interest in any investment fund or any other security. Although this Website may include investment-related information, nothing on this Website is a recommendation that you purchase, sell or hold any security or other investment, or that you pursue any investment style or strategy. Nothing on this Website is intended to be, and you should not consider anything on this Website as, investment, accounting, tax or legal advice.
General Partners
Although certain individuals may be identified on this Website as “General Partners,” such titles reflect business usage that is customary within the venture capital and private equity industry and are not intended to indicate that any such individual is actually a general partner of any partnership as those terms are used for legal purposes.
Restrictions on Use
You are permitted to download and print individual pages of this Website for personal and non-commercial purposes only. You may not access this Website or use the information contained in this Website for any illegal purpose or in any manner inconsistent with these Terms. Your use of this Website must not alter the original content of this Website. You agree not to access this Website or use the information contained herein for resale or other transfer or disposition to, or use by or for the benefit of, any other person or entity. You agree not to use, transfer, distribute or dispose of any information contained in this Website in any manner that could compete with the business of Ridge Ventures or its portfolio companies.
You are not permitted to decompose, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise deconstruct all or any portion of this Website. You may not publish, broadcast, retransmit, reproduce, repackage, commercially exploit, create any derivative of or otherwise redistribute all or any portion of this Website except as explicitly permitted in these Terms.
Ownership
The Materials (including all trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, graphics and articles) are protected by United States and foreign copyright, trademark and other applicable laws. All trademarks, service marks, trade names and logos displayed on this Website are proprietary to Ridge Ventures, its affiliates or the respective third-party owners, and this Website grants no license thereto.
Ridge Ventures reserves all rights to the design and content of this Website. In particular, you must not misappropriate the design and content of this Website, and you must not alter or deface such design or content in any way. Nothing on this Website grants any license with respect to such design or content, except that you may download and use the Materials solely for your own personal information.
No License
Except for the limited rights expressly granted above, nothing herein or contained on this Website should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license or right to use any Materials without the written permission of Ridge Ventures (or, if applicable, the third-party owner of such Materials). Limitations of Liability UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO NEGLIGENCE, SHALL RIDGE VENTURES OR ITS AFFILIATES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, LIABILITIES OR INJURIES THAT RESULT FROM YOUR USE OF THIS WEBSITE OR THE MATERIALS, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Without limitation on the preceding sentence, Ridge Ventures’ liability in connection with this Website is hereby limited to the maximum extent permitted by law and is limited even if Ridge Ventures has been advised of the possibility of the damages, liabilities or injuries that you suffer. Without limiting the foregoing, under all circumstances, the maximum liability of Ridge Ventures, its agents and employees to any user of this Website with respect to this Website is $100.
Indemnification; Hold Harmless
You agree to indemnify and hold Ridge Ventures, and its affiliates, agents, members, partners, directors, employees, licensors and suppliers, harmless from any claims, losses, costs, damages, liabilities and expenses, including attorney’s fees, arising out of your use or misuse of this Website or violation of these Terms or from any decisions that you make based on this Website.
Privacy Statement
Ridge Ventures values the privacy of those who use this Website. Please read this Privacy Statement which covers topics from “Information We Collect” through “Disclaimer Regarding Business Information” (this “Statement”) for details about our approach to privacy. Except as supplemented or superseded by a more focused privacy statement or a binding written agreement, this Statement also applies to investors in Ridge Ventures investment funds. This Statement governs information you provide to us, or that we learn from your use of this Website, and tells you how we may collect, use and, in some instances, share this information.
Information We Collect
In order to access some Ridge Ventures services, you will be asked to provide what is generally called “personal information” (such as your name, email address, social security number, tax identification number, company name and title/position). You may also be asked to provide questions and secret answers, which we use to help verify your identity and assist in resetting your password. Ridge Ventures may, but has no obligation to, monitor and record activity on this Website for any reason.
Ridge Ventures may collect “tracking information” about your visit, including the pages you view, the links you click and other actions taken in connection with Ridge Ventures sites and services. Ridge Ventures also collects certain standard information that your browser sends to every website you visit, such as your IP address, browser type and language, access times and referring website addresses.
When you receive newsletters or promotional e-mail from Ridge Ventures, we may use web beacons, customized links or similar technologies to determine whether the e-mail has been opened and which links you clicked, in order to provide you with more focused e-mail communications or other information.
In order to offer you a more consistent and personalized experience in your interactions with Ridge Ventures, information collected through one Ridge Ventures service may be combined with information obtained through other Ridge Ventures services.
If Ridge Ventures were to sell its assets, merge with another entity or file for bankruptcy, information collected from this Website generally would be a Ridge Ventures asset and may be transferred.
The Way We Use Information
Broadly speaking, we use personal and other information for purposes of conducting our business and investment activities, delivering newsletters to subscribers, delivering information to our investors, providing customer service and making available other products and services to the users of this Website. Additionally, we may use information that we collect from our users to understand their usage trends and preferences, to improve the way this Website works and looks, to improve our marketing and promotional efforts and to create new features and functionality.
Personal information collected via Ridge Ventures sites and services may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Ridge Ventures or its affiliates, subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using a Ridge Ventures site or service, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country. Ridge Ventures abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the United States Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use and retention of data from the European Union.
Notwithstanding any provision of this Statement to the contrary, except as we have otherwise agreed in a binding written agreement, we reserve the right to use any information in any manner permitted or required by applicable law.
Sharing of Your Information
Except as otherwise noted in this Statement, we generally do not share personal information about our users with third parties unless we believe doing so is appropriate in connection with the management or operation of our investment funds, or to carry out a user’s request, or we reasonably believe that doing so is legally required or is in our interest to protect our property or other legal rights or the rights or property of others.
We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as processing tracking information; providing customer support; hosting this Website; performing statistical analysis; helping us to understand usage patterns for certain content, services and/or the functionality of this Website; providing Website maintenance and security; offering certain features on this Website; assisting us in improving the way this Website works and looks; and creating new features. It is intended that those companies will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver the service. They are generally required to maintain the confidentiality of the information and are generally prohibited from using it for any other purpose.
We do not plan to share user personal information with other, third-party organizations for their marketing or promotional use without your consent or except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in. Ridge Ventures generally will not sell or rent your personal information to third parties.
Accessing Your Personal Information
You may have the ability to view or edit your personal information online. In order to help prevent your personal information from being viewed by others, you will be required to sign in with your credentials (user ID/name and password). The appropriate method(s) for accessing your personal information will depend on which sites or services you have used.
Security of Your Personal Information
Ridge Ventures is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. Nevertheless, no data transmitted over (or connected to) the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Electronic communications can be intercepted by third parties and accordingly, transmissions to and from this Website may not be secure. We cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, therefore you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we make reasonable efforts to ensure security on our systems. We use secure server software (SSL) and firewalls to protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed by breach of such firewalls and secure server software.
A password is used to help protect personal information. It is your responsibility to keep your password confidential. Do not share this information with anyone. If you are sharing a computer with anyone, you should always choose to log out before leaving a site or service to protect access to your information from subsequent users.
If we learn of a security systems breach we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. By using this Website or providing personal information to us you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy and administrative issues relating to your use of this site. We may post a notice on this Website if a security breach occurs. If this happens, we may send an email to you at the email address you have provided to us. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive free written notice of a security breach (or to withdraw your consent from receiving electronic notice), you should notify us at info@ridge.vc.
Children
Consistent with the United States Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requiring parental consent. Any person who provides their personal information to Ridge Ventures through this Website represents that they are 13 years of age or older.
Use of Cookies
This Website uses “cookies” to gather general information about the browsing activities of visitors to this Website. This allows us to constantly improve the Website design by arranging the content in the most user-friendly manner and to continually meet the users’ needs. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies contain information that can later be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. (Nevertheless, we cannot guarantee that cookies will not be accessed by other persons.)
You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to sign in or use other interactive features of Ridge Ventures sites that depend on cookies.
Use of Web Beacons
Ridge Ventures web pages may contain electronic images known as “web beacons” – sometimes called single-pixel gifs – that may be used to assist in delivering cookies on our sites and allow us to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. We may include web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or our newsletters in order to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon.
Ridge Ventures may also employ web beacons from third parties in order to help us compile aggregated statistics and determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns. It is our policy to prohibit web beacons on our sites from being used by third parties to collect or access your personal information.
Other Web Sites Linked to This Website
Some Ridge Ventures services may be co-branded and offered in conjunction with another company. If you register for or use such services, both Ridge Ventures and the other company may receive personal information collected in conjunction with the co-branded services.
We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites linked to, or from, this Website nor the information or content contained therein. Please remember that when you use a link to go from this Website to other websites, these Terms (and this Statement) do not apply to such other websites. Ridge Ventures is responsible only for the content of this Website and has no control over other websites that may be accessible from this Website, the contents therein or the products/services offered thereby. Links to those websites do not imply any endorsement of those websites or the information or materials available at those websites. If you access any third-party website through this Website or otherwise, you do so at your own risk. Your browsing and interaction on any other website, including a website which has a link on this Website, are subject to that other website’s own rules and policies. Please read those rules and policies before proceeding.
Disclaimer Regarding Business Information
Do not submit any business information or other materials that you consider to be confidential or proprietary. Because of the large number of business plans and related materials that Ridge Ventures reviews, and the similarity of many such plans and materials, Ridge Ventures cannot accept responsibility for protecting against misuse or disclosure of any confidential or proprietary information or other materials in the absence of Ridge Ventures’ express written agreement to do so. Any plans, information and other materials you submit in connection with this Website may be used or disclosed by Ridge Ventures for any purpose and in any manner, as Ridge Ventures determines at its sole discretion.
Modifications of These Terms
Ridge Ventures reserves the right, at its discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms at any time. When Ridge Ventures does so, it will also revise the “effective date” at the end of these Terms. Please check these Terms periodically for changes. Your continued use of this Website after the posting of changes constitutes your binding acceptance of these Terms and of such changes.
International Visitors and Users
This Website is operated and controlled by Ridge Ventures in the United States. If it is illegal or prohibited in your country of origin to access or use this Website, then you should not do so. Those who choose to access this Website outside the United States access it on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with all local laws and regulations.
Without limiting the foregoing, if you are visiting from the European Union or another region with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from United States law, please note that you are transferring your personal data to the United States which does not have the same data protection laws as the European Union or such other region, as applicable. By providing your personal information you consent to the use of your personal information for the uses identified in the Statement and the transfer of your personal information to the United States as indicated above.
Password Protected Areas
Access to certain portions of this Website may be password protected (such portions, the “Restricted Website”). Passwords should be kept strictly confidential and should not be shared with any other persons. Ridge Ventures reserves the right to terminate at any time any user’s access to the Restricted Website. If you have received a password to access the Restricted Website, you acknowledge and agree that Ridge Ventures has granted you limited access to specific computer files pertaining to Ridge Ventures (“Approved Information”), and you agree not to attempt to access any computer files on the Restricted Website other than the Approved Information. You agree that the written agreements between you and Ridge Ventures regarding such Approved Information, as well as any provisions set forth in such Approved Information, govern the parties’ respective rights and obligations with regard to such Approved Information. You agree that you are responsible for all activities that occur in connection with or arising out of the use of your password. Approved Information provided through the Restricted Website generally is confidential and subject to limitations on disclosure and use, and Ridge Ventures individuals and entities generally have limited liability with respect to the accuracy and completeness of such Approved Information. Accordingly, you agree to take all reasonable steps to protect the confidentiality of your password and not to allow any other person to use your password or gain access to the Restricted Website. You agree to notify Ridge Ventures immediately if you become aware of any disclosure, loss, theft or unauthorized use of your password.
If you have not received a password from Ridge Ventures, you agree not to attempt to access computer files in the Restricted Website.
The Restricted Website may contain Materials relating to the offering of securities or to investors’ interests in Ridge Ventures investment funds. Certain limitations on use and disclaimers of liability otherwise set forth in these Terms may not apply with regard to such Materials.
Governing Law
These Terms, and any disputes relating to these Terms or your use of this Website or the Materials, shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any disputes relating to the foregoing shall be resolved solely in the state or federal courts located in Santa Clara County, California. This paragraph may not apply to certain Materials provided through the Restricted Website.
Severability
If any provision of these Terms is deemed unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision will be deemed severed from the remainder of these Terms and replaced with a valid and enforceable provision as similar in intent as reasonably possible to the provision so severed, and will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.
Entire Agreement
These Terms set forth the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersede all prior agreements relating to such subject matter, and may only be modified in a written agreement executed by a Ridge Ventures authorized signatory. All Ridge Ventures individuals and entities are intended third-party beneficiaries of these Terms.
Assignment
These Terms, and any rights and licenses granted hereunder, may not be transferred or assigned by you without Ridge Ventures’ consent, but may be assigned by Ridge Ventures to an affiliate or successor without restriction. These Terms are binding on your successors and permitted assigns.
Contact Information
Any questions, concerns or complaints regarding these Terms including the Statement should be sent to info@ridge.vc or mailed to the attention of the Chief Financial Officer, Ridge Ventures, One Letterman Drive, Building D Suite P100, San Francisco, CA 94129.
Effective Date: September 11, 2017