Trust Centre
Legitimate interests assessment: summary
I. AI LTD trading as InvestorUniverse · Summary written October 2026
Awaiting solicitor review. This page describes in plain English what we do today. Our solicitor has yet to review the legal wording, so it may change. It is no substitute for legal advice or for a signed agreement.
We hold professional details about people who invest in startups. We rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis for that. Relying on it means answering three questions honestly: what is the purpose, is the data needed for it, and do the interests of the people concerned outweigh ours. This page summarises our answers.
1. The purpose
Founders raising money need to find investors who back companies like theirs: the right stage, sector, cheque size and geography. Most founders have no network to ask. We match a founder's company to investors whose stated or observed focus fits it, and we give the founder a professional way to reach them.
Investors have an interest too. A founder who has been matched properly sends fewer irrelevant pitches than one working from a bought list.
2. Whether the data is needed
What we hold about an investor:
- Name, role and firm
- Investment focus: stages, sectors, geography and cheque size, where stated or observed
- Professional contact routes: work email, the firm's pitch form or contact page, LinkedIn profile
- A professional phone number, where held. These are switched off in the product unless we enable them.
- Where each record came from and when it was last checked
We do not hold home addresses, family details or anything about a person's private life, and we do not hold any special category data.
Matching cannot work without knowing who invests in what, and an introduction cannot happen without a professional route to the investor. We looked for less intrusive ways to meet the purpose and built them in:
- Contact details are not shown on any page. A founder reveals them one investor at a time.
- Reveals are metered per account, rate limited and logged.
- Where an investor publishes a pitch form or contact page, we show that route.
- Work emails and phone numbers are encrypted in our database.
3. The balance
The people in our data act in a professional role that involves being approached by companies seeking investment. Many publish their focus and invite pitches. We think a relevant approach from a founder, to a work address, about the thing the person does for a living, is something an investor would reasonably expect.
The risks we identified, and what we do about each:
- Unwanted email. Every founder email sent through us names the founder, goes only after the founder approves it, and carries a link that stops further founder emails through us for good. Each founder has a daily sending cap.
- Bulk harvesting or resale. Exports are limited, and each one is watermarked so a leaked list can be traced to the account it was made for.
- Out-of-date or wrong details. Records are re-checked on a fixed schedule, and anyone can correct their record.
- Not wanting to be listed at all. Anyone can ask to be removed. The removal takes effect immediately, a person reviews it with a target of 24 hours, and it stays in force even if the details turn up in a new source. See the suppression list policy.
Investors can also claim their profile, set their own mandate, and pause approaches.
How people are told
Our privacy notice describes this processing. Every founder email sent through us says it was sent through InvestorUniverse and links to the opt-out. Whether investors should also be told directly, and how, is one of the points for our solicitor's review.
Our conclusion
On this assessment we believe our interests, and founders' interests, are not overridden by the interests of the investors whose professional details we hold, given the safeguards above. That is our own judgement and it is the part of this page a solicitor has still to confirm. We will update this summary when that review is done and whenever we change what we hold or how it is used.
Your rights
You can object at any time. An objection is absolute where the use is direct marketing, and we treat every objection the same way: your details are hidden at once. Use the data request form or email privacy@investoruniverse.uk. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).