These Terms of Use govern access to and use of the online partnering platform operated by Venture Valuation VV AG under the names "HelloPartnering" and "Biotechgate Digital Partnering" (together, the "Platform").

In these Terms:

• "Venture Valuation", "we" or "us" means Venture Valuation VV AG, Kasernenstrasse 11, CH-8004 Zurich, Switzerland.
• "User" or "you" means the natural person accessing the Platform as a conference delegate, acting for professional purposes and, where applicable, on behalf of an organisation that the person is authorised to represent.
• "Event" means a conference or partnering event for which the Platform is made available.
• "VV Event" means an Event organised by Venture Valuation itself, including the "Biotechgate Digital Partnering" series.
• "Organiser Event" means an Event organised by a third party (the "Organiser") that uses the Platform for its own conference.
• "Biotechgate" means the life-science and business-development database operated by Venture Valuation at biotechgate.com.

1. Acceptance

By registering for an Event, accessing the Platform or otherwise using it (including searching the database, sending or receiving meeting requests, visiting profiles, and adding, importing, updating or submitting any information) you agree to these Terms of Use and to our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. If you do not agree, you must not use the Platform. Where you use the Platform on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these Terms on its behalf.

2. Parties

The Platform is the property of and is managed by Venture Valuation. Using the Platform is part of the conference attendee package for the Event the User has registered for or has been registered for. For an Organiser Event, the contract for the conference itself is concluded between you and the Organiser; these Terms continue to govern your use of the Platform. Where an Event has its own written terms notified to you, those Event terms prevail over these Terms in the case of conflict, except that the limitation of liability in section 8 applies in all cases.

3. Purpose of the Platform; visibility of your data

The Platform is a matchmaking tool. When you are registered for an Event, whether you register yourself or are registered by or for you, you instruct Venture Valuation to make your personal profile and your organisation's profile, together with the information you or your organisation add, upload or import (including a profile imported from an earlier Event or from Biotechgate), available to the other participants and to the Organiser of that Event for the purpose of preparing and arranging meetings. Information strictly required to administer the Event (such as your name, email address and organisation) is in all cases shared with the Organiser.

You can edit the content of your profile at any time, and while your profile is not yet visible you control whether it is published. Once your profile is visible, you can have it deactivated by contacting support, which will do so within one working day; for Biotechgate Digital Partnering events you can also withdraw from an event in your personal profile, which cancels your meetings and deactivates your profile for that event.

The amount of profile and additional information available on the Platform may vary from Event to Event. Venture Valuation and the Organiser do not check profiles before they are put online and do not guarantee a minimum number of profiles or the completeness or accuracy of any profile. The processing of personal data in this context is described in our Privacy Policy.

Where a third party organises an Event, we may also share the participant list and profile data of that Event with that organiser for the purposes described in the Privacy Policy, including where the organiser supplied participant data to us for import.

Venture Valuation may offer networking and business-development features that are not tied to a single Event, including making your profile discoverable to, and contactable by, other Platform users outside an Event. Any such ongoing visibility is controlled by the visibility settings in your profile; you decide whether your profile is visible outside the Events you take part in.

4. Automatic registration and publication for VV Events

This section applies only to VV Events, including the Biotechgate Digital Partnering series. It does not apply to Organiser Events.

4.1 Opt-in. When registering for a VV Event you may choose to be registered automatically for future editions, either for the next edition only or for all future editions ("Auto-Registration"). Auto-Registration is optional, is confirmed by a separate affirmative choice, and can be withdrawn at any time from your profile page or through the opt-out link in our emails. Your choice remains in effect until you withdraw it.

4.2 What happens for each future edition. If you have opted in, then for each future edition of the relevant VV Event Venture Valuation may, without further action by you:

• create your participant registration using the personal and organisation data from your most recent edition, identified by your email address;
• create or update your organisation's profile for that edition by one of the following routes, according to how recently and by whom the source profile was maintained: (i) a copy of the profile that you or your organisation maintained at a source Event within a recent period defined by Venture Valuation, including its detail sections; (ii) where the source profile is older, a profile rebuilt from the current Biotechgate data set, but only if you had previously opted in to exporting your profile to Biotechgate, an option that may not be offered for every Event; or (iii) failing (i) and (ii), a basic profile only, comprising organisation name, address (including city and country), website and industry, with no further content;
• create or maintain an entry for your organisation in Biotechgate and match it to a Biotechgate company identifier, which is stored in your Event profile for identification; this takes place whether or not your profile data is exported to Biotechgate. Where you have not opted in to the Biotechgate export, no company profile content is imported into your Event profile from Biotechgate; Venture Valuation may nonetheless complete your organisation's Biotechgate entry from publicly available sources, primarily the organisation's website;
• record in the profile the origin of the profile data (the source Event or Biotechgate) and note your most recently active Event, determined from your login history, in an internal comment field that other participants cannot see; and
• where the Organiser of that edition has enabled automatic publishing, activate your account and set your personal and organisation profile to visible. This may take place before you first log in to that edition. Other participants can find your profile and send you meeting requests only once partnering has opened for that edition.

4.3 Safeguards. Venture Valuation will send you an activation link for each edition. No password is ever set on your behalf; you set your own password. You can review and change your profile, and withdraw from Auto-Registration, at any time. To have a profile that has been published deactivated, you can contact support, which will deactivate it within one working day; for Biotechgate Digital Partnering editions you can also withdraw from the edition in your personal profile, which cancels your meetings and deactivates your profile for that edition.

4.4 Consent. By opting in to Auto-Registration you agree to this section and to the corresponding processing of personal data described in our Privacy Policy.

5. Acceptable use

The Platform is intended for reasonable use in connection with partnering. The access granted does not include the right to systematically download or extract participant or organisation data. Any use of automated data-collection software is strictly prohibited, and use of the data beyond the Event is not permitted. Downloaded content may be used for your own internal purposes only; it may not be passed to third parties or used for external purposes, including data harvesting, without Venture Valuation's prior written permission. No part of the Platform may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission.

You must not: (a) use the Platform to send unlawful, misleading, defamatory or infringing content, or content that is not a bona fide partnering communication; (b) harass or abuse a participant, or repeatedly contact a participant who has declined contact; (c) impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation; (d) attempt to circumvent another participant's visibility settings, or access, collect or store data other than as needed for your own partnering activity; (e) use automated means to access or extract data; or (f) share your account credentials. You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your credentials confidential. Venture Valuation has tools in place to detect misuse of data and may block or close an account that exceeds normal use.

This restriction applies to your use of the data; it does not limit Venture Valuation's operation of the Platform across Events as described in the Privacy Policy.

6. Your content: warranties and indemnity

You warrant that you are entitled to submit, import and publish the information you place on the Platform, that it is accurate and kept up to date, and that it does not infringe the rights of any third party or breach any obligation of confidentiality. You are responsible for the content of your personal and organisation profile, including for reviewing any content imported or pre-populated on your behalf and for keeping it accurate and up to date. To the extent permitted by mandatory law, you will indemnify Venture Valuation against third-party claims, and reasonable costs, arising from information you submit or import or from your instruction to publish it.

7. Confidentiality, the shared company Messenger, and aggregated statistics

7.1 Confidentiality. The content of individual meeting requests and messages, and the fact that two specific participants are meeting, are confidential between the participants and their organisations. Venture Valuation and the Organiser do not access or disclose them except as strictly necessary to operate the Platform (for example message delivery, spam and abuse prevention, security, and support you request) or as required by law.

The organiser of an Event receives the meeting data for that Event (including who requested and met with whom, the meeting times, and whether meetings were accepted and attended), for running, reporting on and following up its Event. The organiser does not receive the content of meeting requests or messages, which remains confidential. Meeting data is not shared with anyone else in a form that identifies individual participants or meetings; for everyone else, only aggregated and anonymised statistics are used or shared.

7.2 Shared company Messenger. Users who are assigned to the same organisation share one Messenger: they can see and read the meeting requests and messages exchanged by their colleagues at that organisation. The dashboard shows who is assigned to your organisation. It is your responsibility to check that you are assigned to the correct organisation and that your colleagues are correctly assigned. Venture Valuation accepts no liability for the consequences of an incorrect assignment, including a colleague or other person being able to read messages as a result.

7.3 Aggregated statistics. Venture Valuation may create, use, publish and share aggregated and anonymised statistics about activity on the Platform, including the number of meeting requests and meetings, acceptance and decline rates, and the volume of requests exchanged between categories or groups of organisations (for example Biotech to Pharma, or investor to start-up). Such statistics are produced so as not to permit the identification of, or inferences about, any individual participant, organisation, meeting or message.

8. Limitation of liability

8.1 The Platform makes participant-supplied and imported information available; Venture Valuation and the Organiser do not verify it before publication. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Venture Valuation is not liable for loss or damage arising from: (a) content published on the Platform by participants or their organisations; (b) information imported from Biotechgate or from an earlier Event; (c) a participant making their own, or their organisation's, profile visible to other participants; or (d) the Auto-Registration and automatic publishing described in section 4, including where such information is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or ought not to have been disclosed. It is your responsibility to check that your profile is complete and correct, including any content imported or pre-populated on your behalf. Venture Valuation accepts no liability for information that is imported or published in your profile in error, whether it originates from you, from an earlier Event, from Biotechgate or from a publicly available source.

8.2 Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability for unlawful intent or gross negligence, for any liability that cannot be limited or excluded under mandatory Swiss law, for death or personal injury, or for Venture Valuation's own obligations to data subjects under applicable data protection law.

8.3 Subject to section 8.2, Venture Valuation's total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with these Terms and the use of the Platform shall not exceed the fees you paid to Venture Valuation for the relevant Event or, where your participation was free of charge, CHF 300, and only for direct damage actually proven by you. This is a maximum amount; it is not an agreed or minimum sum.

8.4 Venture Valuation provides the Platform with reasonable care and skill but does not warrant uninterrupted or error-free availability. It relies on third-party providers (for example teleconferencing and payment providers) and is not responsible for their acts, omissions or availability, and may change providers at any time. Venture Valuation is not liable for failures caused by events beyond its reasonable control.

9. Period of use

The Platform is made available for a defined period before and during an Event. Depending on the arrangement between Venture Valuation and the Organiser, it may remain available for up to three months after the Event, but Venture Valuation does not guarantee availability beyond the Event itself. Venture Valuation may suspend or withdraw access, in whole or in part, at the end of an Event or where required for maintenance, security or legal reasons. Venture Valuation may also make the Platform, or parts of it (such as your account, profile and networking features), available on an ongoing basis outside any specific Event.

10. Copyright

All content on the Platform and its related portals, including text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio and video clips, digital downloads, data compilations and software, is the property of Venture Valuation or its content suppliers and is protected by international copyright laws. The compilation of all content on the Platform is the exclusive property of Venture Valuation. All software used on the Platform is the property of Venture Valuation or its software suppliers.

11. Licence and site access

Venture Valuation grants the User a limited licence to access and make personal use of the Platform, but not to download (other than page caching) or modify it or any part of it, except with Venture Valuation's express written consent. The Platform or any part of it may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without Venture Valuation's express written consent. This licence does not include any resale or commercial use of the Platform or its contents, or any derivative use.

12. Use of the User's organisation for reference purposes

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, Venture Valuation may use the name and logo of a User's organisation as a reference on its websites, in email marketing campaigns, on printed materials and in social media. An organisation that does not agree must inform Venture Valuation in writing; Venture Valuation will then remove the logo and name from its websites within 14 days and will not use them in future campaigns or printed materials.

13. Digital Partnering and virtual meetings

For Events at which virtual or hybrid participation is possible, Venture Valuation uses external providers such as Zoom to allow participants to meet by teleconference. While we select our providers carefully and implement measures to protect participants' privacy, we depend on the security features of these providers and cannot guarantee that all meetings are fully private and confidential. These meetings are arranged on external servers in the cloud. While we use commercially acceptable means to protect your information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. By taking part in virtual meetings offered through the Platform you also agree to the terms of use of the relevant external providers, such as Zoom. We recommend using your own secure means of communication for meetings in which confidential information is exchanged.

14. Exclusion of users

Venture Valuation may exclude a User from any current or future Event that uses the Platform, close their account, and exclude them from future conferences. Reasons for exclusion include, but are not limited to, breach of section 5, publishing false or misleading information, pursuing fraudulent aims, using a false identity, or otherwise acting in bad faith.

15. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the substantive laws of Switzerland, excluding its conflict-of-laws rules and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The exclusive place of jurisdiction for disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms is Zurich, Switzerland, subject to any mandatory place of jurisdiction.

16. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, void or unenforceable, that provision is severable and does not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions.

17. Changes to these Terms

We will give you reasonable prior notice of material changes to these Terms by email or through the Platform. Changes take effect for future use of the Platform; if you do not accept a material change, your remedy is to stop using the Platform and, where applicable, to withdraw from the Event.

18. General

These Terms, the Privacy Policy, the Cookie Policy and any Event-specific terms are the entire agreement between you and Venture Valuation regarding the Platform. Venture Valuation may transfer its rights and obligations under these Terms to an affiliate or in connection with a reorganisation or sale of its business; you may not transfer yours without our consent. No failure to enforce a provision is a waiver of it.

19. Contact Information

HelloPartnering / Biotechgate Digital Partnering
c/o Venture Valuation VV AG
Kasernenstrasse 11
CH-8004 Zurich
Switzerland

Phone: +41 (43) 321 86 60
Fax: +41 (43) 321 86 61

E-mail: support@hellopartnering.com (HelloPartnering) or partnering@biotechgate.com (Biotechgate Digital Partnering)

www.venturevaluation.com
 

20. Update history

Version 1.09, published 21 September 2026: clarified that a profile can be found by other participants, and meeting requests sent, only once partnering has opened. Version 1.08, published 10 September 2026: sharing of an Event's participant list and profile data with a third-party organiser; meeting data for an Event provided to that Event's organiser; ongoing / cross-Event operation and networking features outside a single Event. Previous versions: 1.07, published 10 September 2026; 1.06, published 19 September 2023.