Ada Ventures

This Privacy Notice

Ada Partners LLP (“Ada Ventures”) respects the privacy of every individual whose personal information it handles. This Privacy Notice explains how Ada Ventures collects, stores and uses that personal information and sets out our approach to the UK General Data Protection Regulations, the Data Protection Act, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and all other legislation and regulatory requirements in force from time to time which apply to a party relating to the use of personal data (the “Data Protection Legislation”).

About us

Ada Ventures is the data controller of your data for the purpose of the Data Protection Legislation. Being a Controller means that we are trusted to look after and deal with your personal information in accordance with this notice. We determine the ways and means of processing your data and must therefore be accountable for it.

We are registered at UK Companies House under number: OC423404 and registered with the ICO as a fee payer under number ZB313388

Our address is United House, 9 Pembridge Road, London W11 3JY

If you have any queries about the way we handle your data or wish to exercise your rights, you can contact us on matt@adaventures.com

Please note that our website and other digital platforms may contain links to third party websites / digital platforms which are provided for your convenience. We are only responsible for the privacy practices and security of our own digital platforms. We recommend that you check the privacy and security policies and procedures of each and every other website / digital platform that you visit.

Ada Ventures' mission is to make venture capital accessible to the best entrepreneurial talent in Europe regardless of demographic or background and aims to have the most diverse pipeline of any fund in Europe.

We will invest in anyone with a breakthrough idea solving the hardest problems that we face.

Personal Data

Personal data is defined by the Data Protection Legislation as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier’.

Personal data is, in simpler terms, any information about you that enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also covers less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers.

Data subjects’ rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights over your personal data under the Data Protection Laws.

Right of access: You can request access to a copy of the personal data which we hold about you as well as details about why and how we use;
Right to rectification: You can ask us to change or complete any personal data we hold about you which is inaccurate or incomplete;
Right to be forgotten/erasure: You have a right, under certain circumstances to ask us to delete any personal data we hold about you. Please note that there may be situations where we must retain your personal data after a request for erasure where we have a lawful basis for doing so.
Right of restriction: You can ask us to restrict (i.e.: prevent) the processing of your personal data where you have objected to our use of it and we have no lawful basis to continue processing your personal data.
Right to data portability: In certain circumstances, you can ask us to transfer the data we hold about you to another. This would be sent in a structured, commonly used, electronic form.
Right to object: You can object to us using your personal data for particular purposes.
Automated decision making: You have a right not to be subjected to automated decision making and profiling in certain circumstances. Note: Ada Ventures do not make any automated decisions on you.

For more information about our use of your personal data or exercising your rights as outlined above, please contact Matt Penneycard at matt@adaventures.com in the first instance.

Please note that these rights are subject to some statutory qualifications

You also have the right to lodge a complaint about our processing with a supervisory authority – in the UK that is the ICO whose details are here: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/postal-addresses/

It is important that your personal data is kept accurate and up-to-date. If any of the personal data we hold about you changes, please keep us informed.

Depending on the context in which we encounter your personal data, we may collect, store and process some of that data, as set out below.

1. Business Contacts

As a part of its day-to-day operations Ada Ventures meets large numbers of business contacts at meetings and receives emails about investment opportunities. It is likely to receive and store personal information on those it meets.

If you have had contact with Ada Ventures, for example through emailing us or meeting a colleague, it is likely that we will want to make a note of that email or meeting and may store limited amounts of personal information relating to you, such as your name, job title, employer organisation and contact details. We will collect and store this personal information for the purposes of: maintaining a record of contacts; providing periodic business updates; drawing to your attention working opportunities which may be of mutual benefit to us as described below; and organizing meetings with you.

The legal basis for collecting and storing such personal information about you is that such processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in running and promoting our business.

We retain this data for as long as we have a relationship with you.

2. Personal information of Suppliers and Professional Advisors

As a part of its day-to-day operations Ada Ventures is likely to receive and store personal information to enable it to buy office and other supplies or engage with professional advisors.

If you are a supplier or professional advisor to Ada Ventures, we will capture and use limited amounts of personal information relating to you, including your name, job title, qualifications, employer organisation and contact details, as well as information relating to the services you have provided. We will store this personal information for the purposes of administering and maintaining records of services or advice we have received, and commissioning further services.

We store and process information in this way because it is necessary to: perform a contract to which you are likely to be a party; comply with a legal or regulatory obligation; and/or protect our legitimate interests in running and promoting our business.

We will retain this data for the length of our relationship plus 7 years.

3. Personal information collected during an investment transaction

Ada Ventures is likely to receive and store personal information as part of its investment evaluation process. If you are involved in a transaction that Ada Ventures and/or the funds that it manages or advises enters into, or a potential transaction that Ada Ventures considers, we store personal information relating to you. This might include your CV, details of your previous employment history and professional activities, information relating to your financial status and dealings, nationality information (including copies of identity documents, such as a passport), references provided by third parties, and results of other due diligence carried out.

We also process sensitive and special category data about our actual or potential founders, Ada Scouts and Ada Angels. More details can be seen in section 7.

We collect and store this information for the purposes of:

evaluating a transaction and your role in it;
evaluating the Ada Scout cohort and applications to join the Ada Scout program;
executing transactions;
managing an investment once made;
maintaining records of investments;
meeting regulatory and legal obligations e.g. KYC checks;
safeguarding our legal rights and interests;
seeking and receiving advice from our professional advisors, including accountant’s lawyers and other consultants;
providing periodic business updates, as described below; and/or
purposes of equal opportunity or monitoring.

We store and process information in this way because it is necessary to:

perform a contract to which you or we are likely to be a party;
comply with a legal or regulatory obligation; and/or
protect our legitimate interests in running and promoting our business.

Please also see section 7 below for the special category data we process if you have chosen to supply it.

We retain this data for the length of our relationship plus 7 years.

4. Personal information collected on Ada Scouts or Ada Angels or potential Ada Scouts or Ada Angels

Ada Ventures is likely to receive and store personal information as part of its recruitment and evaluation for Ada Ventures’ scout network and Ada Angel program (collectively, the “Ada Scouts and Angels”). If you apply to be an Ada Scout or Ada Angel or become an Ada Scout and/or Ada Angel, we process personal information relating to you. This includes your work experience, your contact details (including your location, email address, associated organisation and social media handles and phone number), diversity information about the communities you represent and results of other due diligence carried out. We also process sensitive and special category data about our Ada Scouts and Ada Angels. More details can be seen in section 8.

We collect and store this information for the purposes of:

evaluating your suitability to be an Ada Scout and/or Ada’s Angel;
managing the Ada Scout and Angels communities;
evaluating the Ada Scout and Angel network as a whole;
maintaining records of the Ada Scout and Angel network;
safeguarding our legal rights and interests;
seeking and receiving advice from our professional advisors, including accountant’s lawyers and other consultants;
providing periodic business updates, as described below; and/or
for the purposes of equal opportunity or monitoring.

We store and process information in this way because it is necessary to:

perform a contract to which you or we are likely to be a party;
comply with a legal or regulatory obligation; and/or
protect our legitimate interests in running and promoting our business.

Please also see section 8 below for the special category data we process if you have chosen to supply it

The data we process about our Ada Scouts and Angels is held for the length of our relationship plus 7 years.

5. Personal information collected for consideration for potential employment opportunities within Ada Ventures’ portfolio companies (Ada Ventures Talent Network)

Ada Ventures is likely to receive and store personal information in service of supporting our portfolio companies through the mapping, evaluation and recommendation of talent for potential or active employment vacancies within the portfolio. If you apply to join the Ada Ventures Talent Network, we process personal information relating to you. This includes your work experience, your contact details (including your location, email address, association organisation and social medial handles and phone number). We may process diversity information about the communities you represent and results of other due diligence carried out. In doing so we seek your consent to process this information.

Additionally, we have a legitimate interest in processing your data via publicly available sources (such as LinkedIn, GitHub, or other publicly available social media or publications).

We collect and store this information for the purposes of:

maintaining records of candidates interested in employment opportunities within Ada Ventures’ portfolio companies;
evaluating your suitability for employment opportunities within Ada Ventures’ portfolio companies;
managing the Ada Ventures Talent Network, including sharing relevant employment opportunities or introduction opportunities to our portfolio;
evaluating the Ada Ventures Talent Network as a whole;
evaluating and benchmarking potential candidates as part of a comprehensive study of the landscape of potential talent;

We store and process information in this way because it is necessary to:

Introduce you to portfolio companies with reference to potential employment opportunities.
comply with a legal or regulatory obligation; and/or
protect our legitimate interests in running and promoting our business. Please also see section 8 below for the special category data we process if you have chosen to supply it. The data we process under consent (i.e., when you apply to the Ada Ventures Talent Network) is held for the duration chosen as part of the application. Where data is processed under our Legitimate Interest, data is held for a maximum of 7 years with regular reviews to determine suitability of continuing to hold this data.

6. Personal data collected during visits to our website

When you interact with our digital platforms, we collect the following information about your visit. This is primarily to help us better understand how people use our digital platforms to enable us to create better content and more relevant communications:

how you have reached our digital platform and the internet protocol (IP) address you have used;
your browser type, versions and plug-ins, and your operating system;
your journey through our digital platform, including which links you click on and any searches you made, how long you stayed on a page, and other page interaction information;
what content you like or share; and/or
information collected in any forms you complete.

For more information relating to our use of third-party cookies, see the ‘Cookies’ section below. We use consent when we place cookies on your device and we store and process this information to protect our legitimate interest in administering our website and our business, and in ensuring that relevant content is provided to you.

We use UTM (Urchin Traffic Monitor) parameters to track the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and to better understand our website traffic. UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a URL that can help us identify the source, medium, and campaign name that led you to our website. The information collected through UTM parameters may include the pages you visit on our website. We use this information to analyze and improve our marketing efforts and to personalize your experience on our website. We do not share this information with third parties, except as required by law or as necessary to provide you with our services. By using our website, or engaging with our marketing campaigns (e.g. by signing up to our newsletter or reading our online publications), you consent to the collection and use of your information through UTM parameters as described in this privacy policy.

7. Mandatory provision of information

In some cases we will not be able to deal with you further without receiving certain information – e.g. ‘Know Your Customer’ information. In such circumstances we will explain this to you including the possible consequences of not providing particular information. In any event Ada Ventures will only process the personal information you provide to Ada Ventures for the purposes listed above, and to protect its legitimate interests in administering its business and complying with the laws and regulations that apply to its business.

8. Sensitive and special category personal data

Ada Ventures avoids wherever possible receiving information on race/ethnicity, religion, political views and your mental or physical health. However, we collect and process data regarding the gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, whether you have a disability or neurodiversity and socioeconomic status of Ada Scouts, the communities represented by potential and selected Ada Scouts, as described by an applicant to become an Ada Scout, Ada Angel, potential founders and their teams for the purpose of our legitimate business interests in:

monitoring our performance against our stated mission to identify and invest in founders from a diverse range of backgrounds, including in relation to race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, whether you have a disability or neurodiversity and socioeconomic status;
monitoring our performance against our stated mission to build a community of Ada Scouts and Ada Angels from a diverse range of backgrounds, in service of the above mission to identify and invest in founders from a diverse range of backgrounds;
curating a community of Ada Scouts from a diverse range of backgrounds, in service of our mission as noted above;
reporting the data, on an aggregated basis, to the investors and potential investors in our fund and to the UK government as part of our commitment to the Investing in Women Code. The data reported as part of the Investing in Women Code will be aggregated and used by the UK Department for Business in the Investing in Women Code Annual Progress Report. This data will be used to inform, promote and support the advancement of female entrepreneurship in the UK. Please see the 2022 IWC Annual Progress Report here for information;
assessing our progress and compliance with the Diversity VC Standard Level 2 certificate; and/or
monitoring the efficacy of our brand, events as well as Ada Scout and Ada Angel network in referring more high quality, diverse dealflow to us (see below). If you provide any sensitive or special category data to us in the course of applying to be an Ada Scout or Ada Angel, or applying for funding as a result of an Ada Scout or Ada Angel referral, it will be used to monitor the efficacy of the programs as a whole, and will also help us to form a fuller picture of each member in the Ada Scout and Ada Angels group.

We will request most of the above information when you submit a pitch to us, apply to be an Ada Scout or Ada Angel, become onboarded as an Ada Scout or Ada Angel, or otherwise interact with us in respect of a transaction or potential transaction, when you are applying to be an Ada Scout and/or Ada Angel or in our normal course of business when pursuing the objectives above. The derogation under which we process race/ethnicity and sexual orientation for the purposes of the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 is for the purposes of equality of opportunity or treatment, with limited special category data being processed for the purposes of research and public interest, as set out above. We will report the information above on an aggregated & anonymised basis to our stakeholders, including our investors, Ada Angels and Ada Scouts. Occasionally, we may report the information above on an aggregated & anonymised basis in public forums. We will never intentionally use the information to make any investment decisions, and we will never intentionally disclose the diversity data you have provided in a way that identifies you. Where an applicant to be an Ada Scout gives us data on the demographics represented by the community they lead or are actively involved in, this information will be used to form part of the picture of the applicant, but will not be the sole factor in consideration when we decide an application to be an Ada Scout.

The data collected will be kept for the length of our relationship plus 7 years. Aggregated and anonymised data will be kept for as long as is reasonably necessary to monitor our progress against our stated mission.

Research Projects

We occasionally commission research projects for the purposes of equal opportunities and monitoring, and to further our stated mission of democratising access to venture capital. One such research project we have completed is a partnership with University College London in 2022 on the diversity of our scout network and the founders they have referred to us. This research was finalised in August 2022 and the results are published here. For this project, pseudonymised information was passed on to UCL on the Ada Scouts and founders whom they referred to us. The project has now ended.

We may commission further research projects that involve the processing of personal data to further this mission. Some of the data for these research projects may be collected from third party sources, such as mnAI and Craft. The data used by these sources are publicly available. Some of the data analysis may be completed using GPT-4, but will always be closely monitored for data quality. Please reach out if you have any questions about how we use personal data as part of these research projects.

9. Transfers of personal data

“Third countries” outside the EEA may not have data protection laws that are as strong as those in the UK and/or the EEA. This means that if we transfer your data outside the UK and EEA, we will take additional steps in order to ensure that your personal data is treated just as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and under the Data Protection Legislation, for example by using contracts with external third parties that require the same levels of personal data protection that would apply under the Data Protection Legislation.

Ada Ventures cloud services are delivered by Microsoft 365 for Business, an international player, but our data is processed and stored on servers located in the EU, UK or Ireland. Typeform is a Spanish based company operating on an AWS platform and using Cloudflare. Microsoft, AWS, and Cloudflare have all signed up and self-certified under the voluntary EU-US Data Privacy Framework and are, thereby, operating under the adequacy decision issued by the European Commission.

Transfers to services providers (and/or their sub-processors) in third countries or to US based system providers which have not submitted to self-certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, are committed under safeguards and data processing agreements with Ada Ventures. This includes the system provider Airtable. The basis for transfer includes contractual obligations under the EU Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK Transfer Addendum, which, among other things, ensure individuals' rights in line with the Data Protection Legislation. For DocuSign, these transfers are transfers under the Binding Corporate Rules and Law Enforcement Guidelines.

11. Keeping You Informed

We wish to build a long-term relationship with you and (with your permission or where permitted by law) we would like to use personal information that we hold to send you updates about our business, activities and opportunities to work together. We would usually do this by email and/or post. You will not be sent any unlawful marketing or spam. You can opt out of receiving updates at any time by contacting us using the information below, or by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link in any email that you receive. Our lawful basis for this is legitimate interest.

12. Technical and Operational Security

We will take all reasonable steps to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information, but cannot guarantee the security of any that you disclose online for example when it is sent by email.

All data is password protected, access controlled, backed up securely and encrypted when appropriate. We also use tools such as Typeform and Airtable to collect data and for our general operational processes. Both Typeform and Airtable are accessible by the Ada Ventures team on a need-to-know basis, using secure password protection and multi-factor authentication where available. The data will be transferred between Airtable and Typeform through a native integration between the two apps. Typeform is ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and Soc 2 compliant; Airtable is Soc 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 compliant.

Ada Ventures stores your personal data in our IT systems based on Microsoft 365 for Business with servers located in the UK and/or Ireland. Ada Ventures applies security systems and procedures to provide technical and organizational security measures to safeguard your personal data, including access-control.

Ada Ventures also uses DocuSign to enable the signing of the contracts. DocuSign is accessible by the Ada Ventures team on a need-to-know basis, using secure password protection and mutli-factor authentication where available. The signed contracts will also be downloaded and saved onto Ada Venture’s internal systems on Microsoft. DocuSign is ISO 27001 and Soc 1 Type 2, Soc 2 Type 2 compliant.

All employees are trained in data protection and are aware of their obligations to ensure the privacy of all data subjects.

Ada Ventures also has in place procedures for dealing with data breaches (the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, your personal data) including notifying you and/or the relevant authorities where we are legally required to do so. Where a password is required to access certain areas of our digital platforms, you are responsible for keeping your password secure and confidential. Please do not share or disclose your password to any other person.

13. Use of Cookies

Cookies are small text files placed on your computer or device by Ada Ventures’ website when you visit certain parts or use certain features of that website (“Cookies”). Ada Ventures’ use of Cookies is governed by the relevant parts of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, unless and until the said Regulations are no longer directly applicable in the UK, and subsequently any legislation which succeeds them (the “Cookie Law”).

Ada Ventures’ website may place and access certain first-party Cookies on your computer or device. First-party Cookies are those placed directly by us and are used only by us. We use Cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of Ada Ventures’ website and to provide and improve our services. We have carefully chosen these Cookies and have taken steps to ensure that your privacy and personal data is protected and respected at all times.

By using Ada Ventures’ website, you may also receive certain third-party Cookies on your computer or device. Third-party Cookies are those placed by websites, services, and/or parties other than us. Third-party Cookies are used on Ada Ventures’ website for the purposes of Ada’s analytics system. These Cookies are not integral to the functioning of Ada Ventures’ website and your use and experience of the website will not be impaired by refusing consent to them.

All Cookies used by and on Our Site are used in accordance with current Cookie Law.

Before Cookies are placed on your computer or device, you will be shown a pop-up asking you to give your consent to set those Cookies. By consenting to the placing of Cookies you are enabling us to provide the best possible experience and service to you.

14. UTM (Urchin Traffic Monitor)

We use UTM (Urchin Traffic Monitor) parameters to track the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and to better understand our website traffic. UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a URL that can help us identify the source, medium, and campaign name that led you to our website. The information collected through UTM parameters may include the pages you visit on our website. We use this information to analyse and improve our marketing efforts and to personalise your experience on our website. We do not share this information with third parties, except as required by law or as necessary to provide you with our services. By using our Typeforms (e.g. our pitch submission form), website, or engaging with our marketing campaigns (e.g. by signing up to our newsletter or reading our online publications), you consent to the collection and use of your information through UTM parameters as described in this privacy policy.

14. Changes to Ada Ventures’ Privacy Notice

We aim to meet high standards and so our policies and procedures are constantly under review. From time to time we may change this privacy notice, for example if the law changes or if we change our business in a way that affects data protection. Accordingly we recommend that you check this page periodically in order to review the latest version.

This version of our Privacy Notice was last updated in September 2024.

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