Risk Disclosures

Investing in early-stage private companies carries a substantial risk of loss, including the total loss of the capital invested. The majority of early-stage startups fail or return less than the capital invested in them. You should only commit capital through FounderGrade that you can afford to lose in full, and past performance of any founder, expert or sector is not indicative of future results.

Securities and instruments offered by companies on FounderGrade are not listed on any public exchange. There is no established market for them, and you should expect to hold a position for years, if not indefinitely, with no guarantee you will ever be able to sell it. A future secondary marketplace feature, where enabled, does not guarantee a buyer will be found.

Your percentage ownership in a company may decrease over time as the company raises additional capital in future rounds, issues options to employees, or otherwise expands its capitalisation table. FounderGrade does not guarantee anti-dilution protection unless it is expressly written into the instrument you sign.

Instruments used on FounderGrade, including SAFEs and convertible notes, typically carry limited or no voting rights and limited ongoing information rights compared with holding equity directly. Company decisions remain with the founders and any existing majority shareholders, and you may have little influence over strategic decisions after you invest.

Capital committed to a deal on FounderGrade is held in an on-chain escrow enforced by audited smart contracts and released to the founder in tranches as milestones are verified. If a milestone is not met, unreleased tranches return to the investor through the dispute process described in our Terms of Service, but tranches already released to the founder are not recoverable through escrow because the underlying work has already been performed.

Escrow protects against capital being released without evidence of progress. It does not protect against a company failing after a tranche has legitimately been released, and it does not protect against loss of value in the underlying investment.

Escrow is administered through audited smart contracts deployed to an EVM-compatible network. The specific network will be confirmed before launch. Smart contract code, however carefully audited, can contain defects, and blockchain networks can experience outages or congestion. Blockchain transactions are irreversible once confirmed. You are responsible for verifying wallet addresses and transaction details before approving any transfer, and for the security of any private keys or credentials under your control.

A single early-stage investment carries a high probability of total loss. FounderGrade strongly recommends building a diversified portfolio across a meaningful number of companies, sectors and stages rather than concentrating capital in one deal, and recommends you take independent advice on an appropriate level of diversification for your circumstances.

Participation as an investor on FounderGrade is restricted to persons who meet the accredited, professional or equivalent investor criteria applicable in their jurisdiction, including standards set by the DFSA, the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority, or comparable regimes such as US Regulation D where applicable. You are responsible for confirming your own eligibility, and providing false information during accreditation checks may result in account suspension.

FounderGrade is a marketplace and information platform. Nothing on the platform, including a credibility score, an expert review, matching results or educational content, constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice. You should consult your own qualified, independent advisers before making an investment decision or entering into any instrument through the platform.

Our eight-dimension credibility scores reflect the professional judgement of independent expert reviewers, applied to the information available to them at a point in time. A score is not an investment recommendation, a guarantee of a company's future performance, a substitute for your own diligence, or a warranty of any kind, express or implied.

FounderGrade is a DIFC-incorporated entity pursuing a DFSA Innovation Testing Licence. This status permits testing of the platform under regulatory supervision within defined parameters and does not constitute a full financial services licence, deposit insurance, or a guarantee from the DFSA or any other regulator of the safety of funds placed through the platform.

If anything in these disclosures is unclear, contact us at legal@foundergrade.ai before making an investment decision. These disclosures should be read alongside our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.