Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy details our commitment to protecting the privacy of personal information provided to us, or otherwise collected by us, when providing our Services. In this Privacy Policy, we, us or our means Blackbird Ventures Pty Ltd (ABN 93 159 044 989) and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates (including but not limited to Blackbird Ventures NZ Limited (NZBN 94-29047685093) and Startmate Ops Pty Ltd (ABN 11 618 178 957).

This Privacy Policy takes into account the requirements of the Australian Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) (Australian Act) and the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 (New Zealand Act).

2. What types of personal information do we collect?

Personal Information means information (and in Australia includes an opinion), whether true or not and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual who is identified or reasonably identifiable.

The types of personal information we may collect about you includes:

When you invest in, or apply to invest in, one of our funds:

your name;
your contact details, including email address, street address and/or telephone number;
your date of birth;
your financial information;
data and documents you provide to us and which are required for Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing checks;
your passport and other identification documents;
government identifiers; and
any other personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party.

When you pitch your company to us for investment and/or we invest in your company

your name;
your contact details, including email address, street address and/or telephone number;
your career history;
links to your website/LinkedIn profile;
data and documents you provide to us and which are required for Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing checks;
your passport and other identification documents;
information you provide to us, including through feedback, founder surveys, questionnaires or otherwise;
your preferences and/or opinions; and
any other personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party.

When you participate in, or apply for, one of our startup community programs

your name;
your contact details, including email address, street address and/or telephone number;
your gender;
your employer and job title;
your career history;
links to your website/Linkedin profile;
your credit card or other payment details;
information you provide to us, including through feedback, customer surveys, questionnaires or otherwise;
your preferences and/or opinions;
details of programs or events we have provided to you and/or that you have enquired about, and our response to you; and
any other personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party.

When you apply for employment with us, volunteer, or mentor with us, are part of our talent network or or provide us with services as a contractor

your name;
your contact details, including email address and/or telephone number;
your financial details (if required);
your employment history and qualifications;
your visa and/or employment status; and
any information we need to collect to onboard you, including background checks or any other information we are required to collect by law.

When you visit our website

your browser session and geo-location data, device and network information, statistics on page views and sessions, acquisition sources, search queries and/or browsing behaviour;
information about your access and use of our Services, including through the use of internet cookies, your communications with our online Services, the type of browser you are using, the type of operating system you are using and the domain name of your internet service provider;
additional personal information that you provide to us, directly or indirectly, through your use of our Services, associated applications, associated social media platforms and/or accounts from which you permit us to collect information; and
any other personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party.

Sensitive Information is a sub-set of personal information that is given a higher level of protection under the Australian Act. Sensitive information means information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional associations or memberships, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or practices, criminal records, health information or biometric information. Unless otherwise permitted by law, we will not collect sensitive information about you without first obtaining your consent.

3. How we collect and hold your personal information

We collect personal information in a variety of ways, including:

Directly‍

We collect personal information which you directly provide to us, including when you apply to invest in one of our funds or for us to invest in your company, when you apply to participate in one of our programs, where you purchase tickets to an event we are hosting, where you apply to work with us, through the ‘contact us’ form on our website or when you request our assistance via email, or over the telephone.

Indirectly

We may collect personal information which you indirectly provide to us while interacting with us, such as when you use our website, in emails, over the telephone and in your online enquiries.

From third parties

We collect personal information from third parties, such as:

third parties we engage to help us conduct background checks;
recruiters or other businesses in our network; and
details of your use of our website from our analytics and cookie providers and marketing providers.

We only collect, hold, use and disclose sensitive information for the following purposes:

any purposes you consent to;
the primary purpose for which it is collected, including to comply with any regulatory requirements;
secondary purposes that are directly related to the primary purpose for which it was collected, including disclosure to the below listed third parties as reasonably necessary to provide our Services to you;
to contact emergency services, or to speak with your emergency contact where we reasonably believe there is a serious risk to the life, health or safety of you or another person and it is impracticable for us to obtain your consent; and
if otherwise required or authorised by law (including in relation to Covid-19 vaccination statuses).

4. How we use your personal information

We may collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for the following purposes:

When you invest in, or apply to invest in, one of our funds

to process an investment application from you and establish your investments in our funds or other financial products;
to manage our relationships with you and administer any investment you have with us;
for internal record keeping and administrative purposes;
to provide you with information about our funds, investments, products or services that may be of interest to you;
to send you welcome packs and other onboarding materials; and/or
to ensure we comply with our legal requirements under any applicable laws and resolve any disputes we may have.

When you pitch your company to us for investment and/or we invest in your company

to assess your application and complete any due diligence;
to invest in your company and undertake any associated transactional steps;
to send you welcome packs and other onboarding materials;
to ensure we comply with our legal requirements under any applicable laws and resolve any disputes we may have;
for internal record keeping and administrative purposes;
to contact and communicate with you; and/or
to provide advice, support and ongoing commercial assistance.

When you participate in, or apply for, one of our startup community programs

to assess your application for one of our programs;
to onboard you onto our programs or events, including to send you welcome packs and other onboarding materials;
to provide our Services to you, including to deliver our program or event to you and register your attendance in programs or at events;
for internal record keeping, administrative, invoicing and billing purposes;
to contact and communicate with you about the program or event;
to run promotions, competitions and/or offer additional benefits to you;
to obtain feedback;
to monitor and report on the diversity of our intakes;
for analytics, market research and business development, including to operate and improve our programs and events;
to comply with our legal obligations and resolve any disputes that we may have; and/or
if otherwise required or authorised by law.

When you apply for employment with us, volunteer or mentor with us, are part of our talent network or provide us with services as a contractor

to assess your application;
where you are a contractor or employee, to onboard you;
to connect people within our community;
for internal record keeping, administrative, invoicing and billing purposes;
to contact and communicate with you;
to comply with our legal obligations and resolve any disputes that we may have; and/or
if otherwise required or authorised by law.

When you visit our website or otherwise interact with us

to provide our website to you;
to contact and communicate with you about any enquiries you make with us;
for analytics, market research and business development, including to operate and improve our Services, associated applications and associated social media platforms;
for advertising and marketing, including to send you promotional information about our products and services and other information that we consider may be of interest to you;
to comply with our legal obligations and resolve any disputes that we may have; and/or
if otherwise required or authorised by law.

5. When we disclose your personal information

We may disclose your personal information to:

our employees, contractors and related entities;
third party service providers for the purpose of enabling them to provide their services, to us, including (without limitation) IT service providers, legal and regulatory partners, marketing or advertising providers, professional advisors and payment systems operators;
our portfolio entities or other entities or persons where we are introducing you to them;
when collected as part of one of the startup community programs, certain information may be shared with other program participants and mentors;
the readers of our Blackbird blog, where you have been profiled or featured in an article;
our existing or potential agents or business partners;
sponsors or promoters of any promotions or competition we run;
anyone to whom our business or assets (or any part of them) are, or may (in good faith) be, transferred;
courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities, in the event you fail to pay for goods or services we have provided to you;
courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities (including the Australian Taxation Office, New Zealand Inland Revenue Department, Australian Investments and Securities Commission, the New Zealand Companies Office and similar overseas regulatory bodies) and law enforcement officers, as required or authorised by law, including as a result of Australia and New Zealand’s participation in the Common Reporting and Standard and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, where there are foreign indicia on your account, in connection with any actual or prospective legal proceedings and/or in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights;
third parties to collect and process data, such as Google Analytics; and
any other third parties as required or permitted by law, such as where we receive a subpoena.

6. Disclosure of your personal information to overseas recipients

Your personal information may be transferred outside of the country in which you are located.

If you are based in Australia, unless we seek and receive your consent to an overseas disclosure of your personal information, we will only disclose your personal information to countries with laws which protect your personal information in a way which is substantially similar to the Australian Privacy Principles and/or we will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to require that overseas recipients protect your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.

If you are based in New Zealand, before disclosing any personal information to an overseas recipient, we will comply with Information Privacy Principle 12 and only disclose the information if:

you have authorised the disclosure after we expressly informed you that the overseas recipient may not be required to protect the personal information in a way that, overall, provides comparable safeguards to those in the New Zealand Act;
we believe the overseas recipient is subject to the New Zealand Act;
we believe that the overseas recipient is subject to privacy laws that, overall, provide comparable safeguards to those in the New Zealand Act;
we believe that the overseas recipient is a participant in a prescribed binding scheme;
we believe that the overseas recipient is subject to privacy laws in a prescribed country; or
we otherwise believe that the overseas recipient is required to protect your personal information in a way that, overall, provides comparable safeguards to those in the New Zealand Act (for example pursuant to a data transfer agreement entered into between us and the overseas recipient).

7. Your rights and controlling your personal information

Your choice: Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. If you provide personal information to us, you understand we will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You do not have to provide personal information to us, however, if you do not it may affect our ability to provide our Services to you and your use of our Services. ‍

Information from third parties: If we receive personal information about you from a third party, we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy. If you are a third party providing personal information about somebody else, you represent and warrant that you have such person’s consent to provide the personal information to us.

‍Anonymity: Where practicable we will give you the option of not identifying yourself or using a pseudonym in your dealings with us.

‍Access: You may request access to the personal information we hold about you, or request that we change the personal information, by contacting us in the manner outlined below. An administrative fee may be payable for the provision of such information. Please note, in some situations, we may be legally permitted to withhold access to your personal information. If we cannot provide you with to your information as requested, you will be notified as soon as reasonably possible, and we will provide you with the reasons for our refusal and any mechanism available to complain about the refusal. If we can provide access to your information in another form that still meets your needs, then we will take reasonable steps to give you such access. ‍

Correction: If you believe that any information, we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please contact us using the details below. We will take reasonable steps to promptly correct any information found to be inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading. Please note, in some situations, we may be legally permitted to not correct your personal information. If we cannot correct your information, we will advise you as soon as reasonably possible and provide you with the reasons for our refusal and any mechanism available to complain about the refusal. ‍

Restrict and unsubscribe: You may also request that we restrict the use of your personal information for direct marking purposes by contacting us using the contact details below. Alternatively, to unsubscribe from our e-mail database or opt-out of communications (including marketing communications) you may use the opt-out facilities provided in the communication.

Your right of complaint: If you wish to make a complaint, you may do so by providing your written complaint to any one of our contact details as noted below. Where possible, the complaint should include enough information to help us resolve it. We will respond to promptly investigate your complaint and respond in writing, setting out the outcome of our investigation and the steps we will take in response to your complaint.

If you are not satisfied with our response to a complaint and you are in Australia, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, and if you are in New Zealand, you may contact the Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner.

8. Cookies

We may use cookies on our website from time to time. Cookies are text files placed in your computer & browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your email address or other personally identifiable information. However, they do allow third parties, such as Google and Facebook, to cause our advertisements to appear on your social media and online media feeds as part of our retargeting campaigns. If you choose to provide our website with personal information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.

9. Storage and security

We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we collect is secure. We hold your personal information:

in a variety of formats including on databases, in hard copy files and on personal devices, including laptop computers; and
only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with any application legal reporting or document retention requirements, and

To prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place industry standard physical, electronic, and managerial procedures and security measures, to safeguard and secure personal information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification, and disclosure.

While we are committed to security, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that is transmitted to or by us over the Internet. The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk.

10. Links to other websites

Our websites may contain links to other party’s websites. We do not have any control over those websites, and we are not responsible for the protection and privacy of any personal information which you provide whilst visiting those websites. Those websites are not governed by this Privacy Policy.

11. Links to other websites

We may, at any time and at our discretion, vary this Privacy Policy by publishing the amended Privacy Policy on our website. We recommend you check our website regularly to ensure you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.

‍

For any questions or notices, please contact our Privacy Officer at:

Blackbird Ventures Pty Ltd
ABN 93 159 044 989
Level 1, 111-115 Albion St Surry Hills
NSW 2010
compliance@blackbird.vc

‍

Blackbird Ventures NZ Ltd
NZBN 94-29047685093
Level 11, 41 Shortland St,
Auckland 1010
compliance@blackbird.vc

‍

Startmate Ops Pty Ltd
ABN 11 618 178 957
Level 1, 111-115 Albion St Surry Hills
NSW 2010
compliance@blackbird.vc

‍