STARTUPSAFRICA · LAST UPDATED 21 SEPTEMBER 2026

Privacy policy

StartupsAfrica is operated by startupsSA. Contact: central@summit88.co.za.

What we collect and why

We process your email address and authentication records to sign you in, protect your account and send requested sign-in codes. When you submit a startup, we store the listing details, founder name, optional logo, review history and notification delivery status to manage the submission and moderation process. Providing account and listing information is voluntary, but we cannot offer the corresponding features without it.

What becomes public

Approved listings display the startup name, website, pitch, story, category, city, stage, founding year, founder name and logo. Account email addresses, pending submissions and private moderation notes are not part of the public directory. Moderators can access submissions and their submitter’s account email to manage reviews. Do not include confidential or sensitive personal information in a listing.

Cookies and device storage

The startup_sa_voter cookie lasts up to one year and supports one vote per startup per browser. It is signed, HttpOnly and SameSite=Lax. Signing in stores a Supabase session in your browser until you sign out or the session expires. Saved draft details and preview votes may remain in local storage until you remove them or clear your browser data.

Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights measure public page visits and loading performance when enabled in our Vercel deployment. They load on public pages without a consent prompt. Our integration removes URL query strings and fragments and excludes account, submission and admin pages. Essential storage supports requested sign-in and voting features; your browser can block or remove it, which may prevent those features working.

Service providers and shared authentication

Vercel and Cloudflare provide hosting infrastructure, Supabase provides authentication, database and private file storage, and Resend delivers transactional emails. StartupsAfrica currently shares a Supabase identity directory with the operator’s FinanceAPP project. StartupsAfrica listing permissions remain separate; moderators can see aggregate shared-account counts. These providers may process information outside South Africa. Their terms and privacy notices describe their processing practices. Contact us for information about applicable processing locations and transfer arrangements.

Security and retention

We use access controls and server-side permission checks to restrict private information. Voting and sign-in abuse controls store keyed hashes rather than raw network addresses in application rate-limit tables; those rows are removed after 24 hours when the relevant limiter next runs. Infrastructure providers may retain their own security logs. Listings, review history, account records and email delivery markers are retained while needed to operate the service, resolve disputes or meet legal obligations. We review retention needs and handle verified deletion requests, subject to legal and operational requirements. Recoverable trash does not permanently erase a record.

Your choices and rights

You may request access to, correction of or deletion of your personal information, or object to processing where applicable. Contact central@summit88.co.za; we may ask for proportionate verification of your identity. Shared authentication means account deletion needs to account for other services using that identity. You can also contact South Africa’s Information Regulator about a privacy complaint.

Updates

We will update this page when our practices change and provide additional notice for material changes where appropriate.