Privacy Policy

1. Scope

This Privacy Policy describes how Valuenest, LLC ("Valuenest," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, stores, and protects information when you use our deal-assessment platform and related Services. Our Services are directed solely to licensed M&A advisors, business brokers, and related professionals located in the United States.

This policy covers two categories of people whose data we may handle: Advisors (our direct customers who create accounts and use the platform) and Data Subjects (business owners, sellers, buyers, and other third parties whose financial and personal information is contained in documents that advisors submit to the platform).

2. Information We Collect

A. Contact and Account Information (Advisors)

Name, work email address, phone number, firm name, professional credentials, and LinkedIn profile URL provided when registering for access or requesting participation in the pilot program.

B. Deal and Financial Information

Business, financial, and operational documents submitted by advisors in connection with deal assessments. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Profit and loss statements (including trailing 12–36 month periods);
• Business and personal tax returns (including Schedule K-1, Schedule C, and related schedules);
• Balance sheets;
• Payroll reports and records;
• Accounts receivable and accounts payable aging reports;
• Bank and financial account statements;
• Lease agreements and real property schedules;
• Customer and vendor concentration schedules; and
• Any other financial, operational, or supporting documents submitted for analysis.

These documents frequently contain personally identifiable information of individuals, including business owners, employees, customers, and vendors, who are not direct users of the platform.

C. Third-Party Data Subject Information

Documents submitted by advisors may contain personal and financial information of business owners and other individuals who have not directly interacted with Valuenest. This may include names, addresses, Social Security Numbers or Taxpayer Identification Numbers, compensation information, banking details, and financial history.

Advisors represent and warrant, as a condition of using the platform, that they have obtained written authorization from these individuals before submitting their data. Valuenest processes this data solely to provide the deal assessment Services to the advisor who submitted it.

If you are a business owner whose financial information has been submitted to Valuenest by an advisor, you may contact us at privacy@valuenest.ai to inquire about your data, request access, or request deletion, subject to applicable retention requirements.

D. Social Security Numbers and Tax Identification Numbers

Tax returns and certain other financial documents submitted to the platform may contain Social Security Numbers (SSNs) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). Valuenest processes these documents to extract and analyze the financial data within them. SSNs and ITINs are encrypted at rest and are not stored in searchable or accessible database fields. Access to documents containing SSNs or ITINs is restricted to authorized systems and personnel with a documented operational need. We do not use SSNs or ITINs for any purpose beyond document processing.

E. Platform and Technical Data

IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, session duration, and usage analytics collected automatically when you use the platform.

F. Third-Party Integration Data

If and when integrations with third-party platforms (such as accounting software) are made available and you choose to connect your account, we may collect financial statements, transaction records, and related data from those platforms solely to provide the Services to you.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use collected information to:

• Provide, operate, and maintain the platform and scoring engine;
• Generate deal assessments, reports, flags, and analytics outputs;
• Respond to support requests and advisor inquiries;
• Monitor platform security and performance;
• Send administrative and transactional communications related to your account; and
• Comply with applicable U.S. legal obligations.

Prohibition on AI Model Training

We do not use User Data, including uploaded financial documents, tax returns, payroll records, or any data derived from deal submissions, to train, fine-tune, pre-train, or otherwise develop artificial intelligence or machine learning models, including Valuenest's own scoring engine. Your financial data is processed by the engine; it is not used to build or improve it.

Prohibition on Client Solicitation

We do not use deal-level data, seller identifying information, or business owner information submitted through the platform to contact, solicit, market to, or share information about your clients with any third party, including potential buyers or investors, without your express written consent.

Aggregated Analytics

We may use anonymized, aggregated information derived from platform usage to develop industry analytics, benchmarks, and product improvements. Aggregated data is stripped of all deal-identifying, customer-identifying, and individual-identifying attributes and cannot reasonably be used to identify any individual deal, advisor, seller, or buyer. We will not commercialize deal-level financial data or individual transaction details in any form.

4. Sharing of Information

We do not sell personal or business information.

We may share information only with:

• Infrastructure and subprocessors who assist in operating the platform (including cloud hosting, database, storage, AI inference, and email delivery providers), subject to data protection agreements requiring equivalent safeguards;
• Third-party integrations at your specific direction;
• Legal authorities if required by applicable law, court order, or regulatory request; or
• Successors in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, with equivalent data protections applied and notice to affected users.

We do not share identifiable deal-level financial or transactional data across customers or with any party not described above.

5. Data Security

We implement technical, administrative, and organizational measures to protect User Data commensurate with its sensitivity, including:

• Encryption of data in transit (TLS) and at rest;
• Role-based access controls limiting data access to authorized personnel with a documented need;
• Restricted access to documents containing sensitive personal information such as tax returns;
• Periodic review of security practices and subprocessor compliance; and
• Incident response procedures for suspected or confirmed security events.

No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security against all threats.

6. Data Breach Notification

In the event of a confirmed breach affecting your data, we will notify you within 72 hours of discovery by email to the address associated with your account. Notification will include, to the extent known, the nature of the breach, the categories of data affected, and the steps Valuenest is taking in response. We will also provide required notifications to regulatory authorities as required by applicable law.

7. Data Retention

We retain User Data only as long as necessary to provide the Services, maintain accurate records, and comply with applicable legal obligations. Standard retention periods are:

• Active accounts: Retained for the duration of the engagement and up to 24 months following the last activity on the associated deal or account.
• Terminated or closed accounts: Retained for up to 12 months following account termination, after which data is deleted or destroyed.
• Legal holds: Retained until the relevant matter is resolved.

You may request deletion of your data at any time by contacting privacy@valuenest.ai. Requests will be processed within 30 days, subject to applicable legal retention requirements.

8. Data Portability

You may request an export of your account data and deal-related outputs at any time by contacting privacy@valuenest.ai. We will provide available data in a structured, machine-readable format within 30 days of your request. This right is subject to applicable legal restrictions.

9. Cookies and Tracking

We may use cookies and analytics tools to understand usage patterns and improve platform performance. You may adjust your browser settings to manage or disable cookies; doing so may affect certain platform functionality. We do not use cookies or tracking technologies to serve targeted advertising.

10. Subprocessors

We use third-party subprocessors to operate the platform, including providers of cloud infrastructure, database and file storage, AI inference and analysis services, and email delivery. All subprocessors are required to maintain data protection standards consistent with this Privacy Policy.

A current list of our subprocessors is available upon request at privacy@valuenest.ai. We will notify advisors of material changes to our subprocessors that affect how their data is handled.

11. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)

Some advisors who use our platform may themselves be subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) as financial institutions or service providers handling nonpublic personal financial information. Advisors who have GLBA compliance obligations are responsible for ensuring that their use of the Valuenest platform is consistent with their own privacy and safeguards obligations. Valuenest is not a financial institution under GLBA but operates as a service provider to advisors. Advisors requiring a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) or vendor agreement to support their GLBA compliance should contact privacy@valuenest.ai.

12. Your Privacy Rights

To the extent required by applicable state or federal law, you have the right to:

• Know what personal information we collect about you and how it is used;
• Access or receive a copy of your personal information;
• Correct inaccurate personal information;
• Request deletion of your personal information, subject to legal retention requirements;
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal data for advertising purposes (we do not sell or share personal data for advertising);
• Request portability of your data in a structured format; and
• Not be subject to discrimination for exercising these rights.

These rights apply to advisors who are our direct customers. Business owners or other individuals whose data was submitted by an advisor may also contact us to exercise applicable rights with respect to their personal information.

To exercise any of these rights, contact privacy@valuenest.ai. We will respond within 45 days. We may verify your identity before processing a request.

13. Geographic Scope

Our Services are directed solely to individuals and businesses located in the United States. We do not knowingly collect data from residents of the European Union, European Economic Area, or United Kingdom and do not operate as a data controller or processor under GDPR. If we discover that data from such individuals has been collected, we will delete it promptly.

14. Children's Privacy

Our Services are not directed to minors under 18, and we do not knowingly collect data from children.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The Effective Date above indicates the most recent version. We will notify users of material changes by email at least 14 days before changes take effect. Continued use of the Services after the effective date of updated terms constitutes acceptance of those changes.

16. Contact

For privacy-related inquiries, data requests, or to exercise your rights, contact:

privacy@valuenest.ai

Valuenest, LLC  |  valuenest.ai  |  info@valuenest.ai