Beta Participation Declaration

CompanionsFintech is a beta. It works, and real businesses and investors use it, but it is still being tested. Parts of it may be unavailable, slow, interrupted or wrong. Tell us when you find something.

Features, screens, scoring, fees, terms and the steps you go through can change while we build. Test data may be corrected, reset or removed. Where a change affects something you have already submitted, we will tell you.

Creating an account, completing a profile or listing a business does not guarantee that:

• a business will be approved, listed, matched or funded, in whole or in part;
• a raise will be filled, or filled in time;
• any investment opportunity will be made available to you, or that there will be enough of them.

We may cap loan sizes, investment amounts and the number of listings or participants, and we may change who can take part. We may pause, suspend or remove an account, a listing or a feature at any time, giving notice where we reasonably can.

Nothing on CompanionsFintech is financial, investment, tax or legal advice, a recommendation, an offer to the public of any product or security, or a solicitation. Trust Scores and listing information are aids to your own judgement, not guarantees, and can be wrong or out of date. Do your own research, and speak to an authorised financial services provider or other professional before you invest or borrow.

• You can lose some or all of the money you invest. A business may repay late, in part, or not at all.
• Rates and expected returns shown are not guaranteed. They assume the loan is repaid in full and on time.
• An investment is not a bank deposit, and no deposit insurance or guarantee protects it. We do not guarantee any business’s repayment.
• Your money is committed for the loan’s term. You may not be able to withdraw early, and there may be no way to sell your position.
• Loans are made and repaid in rand, while you invest and are paid in US dollars (USDC). We lock the exchange rate when a loan is disbursed, but that does not protect you if a business repays late or not at all.
• USDC is a stablecoin and can lose its peg. Blockchain networks can be congested, fail or be attacked, and blockchain transactions cannot be reversed — a payment to a wrong address cannot be recovered.
• This is beta software. It may contain bugs that affect balances, records or transactions.

What you give us is handled under the Privacy Policy and the Data & Information Consent, which apply in full during the beta. Under POPIA you can ask for a copy of your information, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Test data may be cleared during the beta.

• Use real details. The point of the beta is to test the real thing.
• Keep your own records of anything important; do not rely on the platform as your only copy.
• Tell us when something breaks or reads wrongly, at support@companionsfintech.com. Feedback you give may be used to improve the platform without payment to you.

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for loss that comes from the limits of a beta — downtime, errors, changes, or opportunities not made available — or from the risks set out above. Nothing here limits a right you have under the Consumer Protection Act, POPIA or any other law that cannot be limited or excluded, or our liability where the law does not allow it to be excluded.

The laws of South Africa apply, and disputes go to the South African courts. When the beta ends we will tell you, and we may publish updated terms and ask you to agree to them.