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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 20 October 2026

1. Information We Collect

We may collect the following categories of information:

Personal Information — when you interact with us, including submitting an application or contacting us, we may collect:

  • Full name
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • Country of residence
  • Company or startup name
  • Job title
  • LinkedIn profile
  • Startup information
  • Pitch deck and supporting documents
  • Business plans
  • Financial or funding information you choose to provide
  • Any other information you voluntarily submit

Technical Information — when you visit our website, we may automatically collect:

  • IP address
  • Browser type and version
  • Device information
  • Operating system
  • Pages visited
  • Time spent on pages
  • Referral source
  • Cookies and similar tracking technologies

2. How We Use Your Information

  • Evaluate accelerator applications
  • Communicate with applicants and founders
  • Respond to inquiries
  • Schedule meetings and interviews
  • Improve our programs and website
  • Provide updates regarding Startup Nest activities
  • Send newsletters or marketing communications (where permitted)
  • Monitor website performance and analytics
  • Prevent fraud or misuse
  • Comply with legal obligations

3. Legal Basis for Processing

Where applicable under relevant privacy laws, we process personal information based on one or more of the following:

  • Your consent
  • Performance of a contract or pre-contractual steps
  • Compliance with legal obligations
  • Our legitimate business interests, including operating and improving our accelerator programs

4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies on this website:

  • Essential — needed for the website to work securely and properly.
  • Advertising — with your consent where the law requires it, we use the Meta Pixel. It records visits and actions on our pages, such as viewing a page or submitting an application, and shares them with Meta so we can measure our ads, improve them and show them to people likely to be interested. Meta handles this information under its own privacy policy.

We do not send the contents of your application or registration (such as your name, email address or phone number) to Meta or Google through these technologies.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and control how Meta uses your information for ads in your Facebook or Instagram ad settings. Blocking cookies may affect how parts of the website work.

If our use of cookies or similar technologies changes, we will update this section.

5. Sharing of Information

We do not sell your personal information. We may share information with:

  • Employees and authorized team members
  • Mentors, advisors, or investment committee members involved in evaluating applications
  • Professional service providers (cloud hosting, email providers, analytics providers, CRM platforms)
  • Advertising, analytics and event platforms, such as Meta, Google and Luma, as described in sections 4 and 13
  • Legal or regulatory authorities where required by law
  • Successor organizations in connection with a merger, acquisition, or business transfer

All third parties are expected to protect your information appropriately.

6. International Data Transfers

Your information may be processed or stored in countries other than your country of residence. Where required, we take reasonable measures to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for international transfers.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to:

  • Evaluate applications
  • Operate our programs
  • Meet legal, accounting, or regulatory requirements
  • Resolve disputes
  • Enforce our agreements

When information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or anonymized.

8. Data Security

We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

While we strive to use commercially acceptable security measures, no method of transmission or electronic storage is completely secure.

9. Your Rights

Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have the right to:

  • Access your personal information
  • Correct inaccurate information
  • Request deletion of your information
  • Restrict or object to certain processing
  • Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent
  • Request a copy of your information in a portable format
  • Lodge a complaint with an applicable supervisory authority

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the details below.

10. Third-Party Services

Our website may contain links to third-party websites or integrate third-party services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third parties. We encourage you to review their privacy policies.

11. Children’s Privacy

Our services are intended for individuals who are at least 18 years old or the applicable age of majority in their jurisdiction. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

If we become aware that personal information has been collected from a child without appropriate consent, we will take steps to delete that information.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When changes are made, we will update the Effective Date. Continued use of the website after changes become effective constitutes acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

13. Events and Advertising

This section explains how we handle your information when you register for a Startup Nest event, such as Khobar Startup Fest 2026.

How you register — You can register through a lead form on Facebook or Instagram, provided by Meta Platforms, or on Luma (luma.com), the platform we use for event registration and tickets.

What we collect — When you register, we collect:

  • Full name
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • How you are attending (for example startup founder, investor, mentor, student or corporate professional)

Luma may ask for more details on its registration page. Meta and Luma each handle the information you give them under their own privacy policies (see section 10).

Where it is stored — Registrations from Meta lead forms are delivered to Google Sheets in our Google account. Only authorized team members can access them.

How we use it:

  • Confirm your registration and help you get your ticket
  • Send you reminders and practical information about the event by email, phone or WhatsApp
  • Measure and improve our advertising

Sharing with Meta — To measure how our ads perform and improve them, we share registration updates with Meta through the Meta Conversions API. These updates are linked to your form response by the ID Meta assigned to it and may show, for example, whether you went on to register for the event. Any contact details shared this way are hashed (converted into an unreadable code) before they are sent. We do not sell your personal information.

How long we keep it — We delete event registration lists within 6 months after the event. For Khobar Startup Fest 2026 (26 September 2026), that is by 26 March 2027. If you have agreed to receive updates from Startup Nest, we keep your name and contact details for that purpose until you unsubscribe.

Your choices — To have your event registration deleted sooner, or to stop event reminders, email team@startup-nest.com with the subject "Delete my event data". Send it from the email address you registered with, or include the phone number you used. We aim to respond within 30 days. You can also control how Meta uses your information for ads in your Facebook or Instagram ad settings.

14. Contact Us

Startup Nest — Email: team@startup-nest.com. Website: https://startup-nest.com. Address: Building 40, Road/Street Number 1701, Block 317, Diplomatic Area, Kingdom of Bahrain.