Terms of use

1. Who we are and how to contact us

This website, Buyside Fintech at buysidefintech.com, is operated by Straker Media LLC, a limited liability company formed in the State of Nevada, United States (we, us, our).

Registered office: to be supplied: registered office address.

You can reach us at:

2. These terms, and your agreement to them

These terms of use govern your access to and use of this website and everything on it, including the vendor directory, the review system and the request-for-proposal service. By using the site you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the site.

If you use the site on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these terms for that organisation, and you in these terms means both you and that organisation.

We may change these terms. If a change is significant we will say so on this page and, where you hold an account, tell you by email before it takes effect. The version in force is the one published here when you use the site. Continuing to use the site after a change takes effect means you accept the new version.

Some parts of these terms apply differently depending on where you are. Those differences are set out in the regional sections at the end. Where a regional section gives you more than the general terms do, the regional section applies.

3. What this site is, and what it is not

This site publishes structured profiles of financial technology vendors and their products, together with ratings and reviews written by people who use those products at investment firms. It also runs a request-for-proposal service that sends one set of questions to the vendors a firm chooses and returns their answers side by side.

Nothing on this site is advice. It is not investment advice, financial advice, legal advice, accounting advice, procurement advice or a recommendation to buy, license or use any product. We are not authorised or regulated as a financial adviser in any jurisdiction, and nothing here should be treated as a personal recommendation.

Vendor and product records are compiled from public sources. Each fact carries the source it came from and the date it was checked. A blank field means we found nothing published, not that the answer is nil. We do our best to keep records accurate but we do not warrant that they are, and you should verify anything you intend to rely on directly with the vendor.

A vendor appearing in the directory has not paid to appear and is not endorsed by us. See section 14 on sponsorship and advertising.

4. Who may use the site

This site is intended for business and professional use by people acting in the course of their work at investment firms, technology vendors and their advisers. It is not aimed at consumers and not aimed at children.

To use the site you must:

• be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live if that is higher;
• have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement, and authority to bind any organisation you act for;
• register, where registration is required, using an email address at your employer's own internet domain. Addresses at free web-mail services are not accepted, because the domain is how we check that a person works where they say they do;
• not be barred from using the site under the laws that apply to you, and not be a person or entity subject to trade or economic sanctions that would make providing the site to you unlawful.

5. Your account

You are responsible for keeping your password and any sign-in link confidential, and for everything done through your account. Tell us at support@buysidefintech.com as soon as you believe someone else has used it.

Give us accurate registration details and keep them current. We may refuse, suspend or close an account where the details are wrong, where the email domain does not support the role claimed, or where these terms have been broken.

Links we email you — to confirm an address, to sign in, or to answer a request for proposal — are personal to the recipient and time-limited. Do not forward them. Anyone holding the link can act as you.

6. Reviews, and how reviewers must behave

Reviews are the reason this site exists, and their value depends entirely on their honesty. These rules are not decoration.

You may write a review only if you have genuine, first-hand experience of using the product in a professional setting, and you are describing that experience truthfully.

You must not:

• review a product sold by your own employer, by a company in your group, or by any company you have a financial interest in;
• review a competitor's product if you work for a vendor in this directory. This rule has no exception. It is the single rule the site exists to enforce, and breaking it is grounds for permanent removal of you and, where the vendor was involved, of the vendor's ability to maintain its listing;
• accept or offer any payment, discount, gift or other benefit in exchange for writing, changing or withdrawing a review;
• post more than one review of the same product from the same person, or use more than one account;
• post anything false, misleading, defamatory, harassing, obscene, or in breach of someone else's rights;
• post confidential information belonging to your employer, a vendor or anyone else, including contract pricing you are under an obligation not to disclose, or any personal data about another person;
• post anything you are contractually barred from posting, including under a non-disparagement clause you have signed.

What we do with reviews. All reviews are moderated before publication. We may decline to publish, edit for length or clarity without changing meaning, or remove a review later. We publish reviews with context about the reviewer's type of firm, its size band and the reviewer's role, but never the reviewer's name or email address.

Right of reply. The vendor whose product is reviewed may publish a response alongside it, attributed to them. Where a review contains a factual error we will correct it against a source.

The licence you give us. You keep ownership of what you write. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt for formatting, publish, translate and distribute your review on this site and in material about this site, and to permit others to do so through the site's normal functions. You confirm you have the right to grant that licence. The licence survives closure of your account, because a published body of reviews that can be withdrawn one by one is not a reliable record; we will, however, remove your review on request where the law requires it, and section 13 explains that.

7. Vendor listings and claiming a profile

There is no fee to appear in this directory, and no fee to claim or maintain a record.

A vendor representative may claim a profile using an email address at the vendor's own domain. Once verified, they may correct the specification, add products, upload logos, screenshots and documents, keep contact details current, and reply to reviews.

A vendor may never post a review, of its own products or of anyone else's. See section 6.

Every proposed edit, image and outbound link is reviewed before it publishes. We keep the previous value beside the new one so an approved change can be undone.

If you claim a profile you confirm you are authorised by the vendor to do so, that what you publish is accurate and not misleading, and that you own or are licensed to use any logo, image or document you upload. You grant us a licence to publish that material on the site for as long as the listing exists.

We may correct, suspend, archive or remove a listing, and we may decline a claim where we are not satisfied the claimant is authorised.

8. The request-for-proposal service

A firm may build a request for proposal from our question bank, choose which vendors receive it, and get the answers back in one comparison. Running one costs the firm nothing and answering one costs the vendor nothing.

What we do: put your questions to the vendors you choose, send reminders before your deadline, collect what the vendors write, and present it side by side with the arithmetic of any score shown in full beside it.

What we do not do: verify, endorse or fact-check what a vendor tells you; guarantee that any vendor will answer, answer fully, or answer truthfully; advise you on which vendor to choose; or take any part in the contract you go on to negotiate. Any score we compute is a summary of the answers given, on weights you set. It is not an opinion about which product is better and must not be used as one.

Your identity. Vendors see your requirements and your questions. They do not see your firm's identity unless and until you choose to reveal it, and they do not see who else was invited. Please note that the content of your questions may itself identify you, and we cannot prevent that.

Confidentiality. Treat what a vendor sends you as confidential to your evaluation unless the vendor says otherwise. Vendors: treat the requirements you receive the same way. Neither side may publish the other's material from an RFP without consent.

You are responsible for making sure that running an RFP through this site is consistent with your own firm's procurement rules and any regulatory obligations that apply to you.

9. Acceptable use

You must not:

• use the site for any unlawful purpose, or in breach of any law that applies to you;
• scrape, crawl, harvest or bulk-download the directory, or use automated means to extract data from it, except that well-behaved search-engine and AI crawlers may index the public pages in accordance with our robots.txt;
• republish a substantial part of the directory, or use it to build a competing dataset or directory;
• attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the site, any account or any server; probe or test its security other than as invited by our security.txt; or interfere with its operation;
• introduce any virus, worm, or other malicious code;
• impersonate any person or organisation, or misrepresent your affiliation with one;
• use the site to send unsolicited commercial messages to anyone whose details you obtain through it;
• remove, obscure or alter any notice of copyright, trade mark or source.

Reporting a security problem in good faith through the address in our security.txt is welcome and we will not treat it as a breach of these terms.

10. Intellectual property

The site, its design, its editorial content, its taxonomy of categories, its question bank and its compilation of the directory are owned by us or licensed to us, and are protected by copyright, database and other rights.

Company names, product names and logos belong to their owners. Where we show a company's logo we have taken it from that company's own website, and we use it for one purpose: to identify that company on its own listing, in the same way we use its name. It does not mean the company endorses this site, is connected with it, or has approved or even read what we have written about it. We claim no rights in anyone else's mark.

We do not republish anyone's brochures, datasheets or other literature. Where such a document is useful we link to it on the owner's own site, so you read it from them, in whatever form they are publishing it today.

If you own a mark shown here and would rather we did not show it, say so at legal@buysidefintech.com and we will remove it. You do not need to explain why, and we will not argue about it: your listing stays, with your name and without your logo.

You may read the site, and quote a reasonable extract with attribution and a link. Anything more needs our written permission.

If you believe material on this site infringes your rights, write to legal@buysidefintech.com identifying the material, where it appears, what right you hold and why you say it is infringed. We will investigate and, where appropriate, remove it.

11. Third-party links

The site links out to vendor websites and to the sources our records rest on. We do not control those sites, we are not responsible for them, and a link is not an endorsement. Their terms and privacy policies apply when you visit them, not ours.

12. Privacy

How we handle personal information is set out in our privacy policy, and how we use cookies in our cookie policy. Both form part of your agreement with us.

13. Complaints, corrections and removal

If something on this site about you or your company is wrong, tell us at support@buysidefintech.com and we will look into it. Where a record is wrong we will correct it against a source, whether or not you have claimed the profile.

If you believe a review breaks the rules in section 6, report it and we will review it. We will tell you the outcome. We do not remove a review simply because its subject disagrees with it — the right of reply in section 6 exists for that — but we do remove reviews that are false, that come from a disqualified reviewer, or that we are legally required to remove.

Requests about your own personal information, including deletion, are handled under the privacy policy.

14. Reviews, sponsorships and advertising disclosure

This website publishes reviews, ratings, comparisons, recommendations, and other editorial content concerning products, services, companies, and other offerings. Some of the content appearing on this website is sponsored, paid for, provided in partnership with an advertiser, or may contain affiliate or referral links.

We may receive compensation from companies whose products or services are featured on this website. Compensation may include advertising fees, sponsorship payments, referral fees, affiliate commissions, free or discounted products or services, or other forms of consideration. Where appropriate, sponsored or paid content will be identified as such.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, our reviews and opinions reflect the views of the author or reviewer. The receipt of compensation does not necessarily determine the conclusions, ratings, or opinions expressed in a review. However, users should understand that commercial relationships may influence which products, services, or companies are selected for coverage, their placement on the website, or the frequency with which they are featured.

Sponsored content, advertisements, and paid placements should not be interpreted as independent editorial endorsements solely because they appear on this website.

We strive to provide information that is accurate and useful, but we do not guarantee that any review, rating, price, product specification, offer, or other information is complete, accurate, current, or applicable to every user. Products, services, prices, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Reviews and ratings represent opinions and should not be considered guarantees regarding the quality, performance, suitability, or results of any product or service. Users should conduct their own research and make purchasing or other decisions based on their individual circumstances.

If you purchase a product or service through certain links on this website, we may receive compensation from the seller at no additional cost to you.

The presence of sponsored content or an advertising relationship does not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or endorsement of the advertiser or its products or services.

15. Disclaimers

The site is provided as it is and as available. To the fullest extent the law allows, we exclude all warranties, conditions and representations that are not expressly set out in these terms, whether implied by statute, common law or otherwise, including any implied warranty of merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

We do not warrant that the site will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that the content is accurate, complete or current.

Nothing in this section limits the rights given to you by the regional sections at the end of these terms, or by any law that cannot be excluded.

16. Our liability to you

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for:

• death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
• fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
• any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under the law that applies to you.

Subject to that, and to the fullest extent the law allows:

• we are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business, anticipated savings, goodwill, opportunity, or data, however caused;
• we are not liable for any decision you take on the basis of anything on this site, including a decision to buy, license, renew or replace a product, or a decision made on the strength of a review, a rating, a vendor record or an RFP comparison;
• we are not liable for what a vendor tells you, in a listing, in a reply to a review or in an RFP response, nor for what a reviewer writes;
• our total liability to you for all claims connected with the site, whether in contract, tort including negligence, breach of statutory duty or otherwise, is limited in aggregate to one hundred United States dollars (USD 100), that being a fair reflection of a service supplied to you free of charge.

The regional sections at the end change this section for readers in some places, and where they do, they prevail.

17. Your liability to us

If you use the site in breach of these terms and that causes a claim against us by someone else, you agree to indemnify us against the reasonable losses, damages and costs, including reasonable legal costs, that we incur as a result. This applies in particular to material you publish on the site, and to a vendor listing you claim and maintain.

We will tell you promptly about any such claim, will not settle it without your agreement where that agreement is not unreasonably withheld, and will let you take over its conduct if you wish. This section does not apply to a consumer where the law does not permit it.

18. Suspending or ending your access

You may stop using the site or close your account at any time by writing to support@buysidefintech.com.

We may suspend or withdraw your access, with notice where it is practical to give it and immediately where the breach is serious, if you break these terms, if we are required to by law, or if we reasonably believe your use puts other users or the site at risk.

Sections that by their nature should survive the end of your access do survive it, including the licence you granted in section 6, and section 10, section 14, section 15, section 16, section 17 and section 20.

19. Other terms

• Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest continues in force and the unenforceable provision applies to the greatest extent permitted.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision, that is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our consent. We may transfer ours to a company that acquires our business, on written notice to you, and only if your rights are not reduced.
• Whole agreement. These terms, together with the privacy and cookie policies, are the whole agreement between us about the site and replace anything said before. Nothing in this paragraph limits liability for fraudulent misrepresentation.
• Events beyond our control. We are not liable for failure to perform caused by an event outside our reasonable control, for as long as it continues.
• No partnership. Nothing in these terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency or employment relationship between us.
• Language. These terms are written in English. Any translation is provided for convenience and the English version governs, except where the law that applies to you provides otherwise.

20. Governing law and where disputes are heard

This section is subject to the regional sections that follow, which change it for readers in several places. Read the one that applies to you.

Except as those sections provide, these terms and any dispute arising out of them or out of your use of the site are governed by the laws of the State of Nevada, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and the state and federal courts sitting in Clark County, Nevada have exclusive jurisdiction. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

Before starting proceedings, please write to us at legal@buysidefintech.com and give us 30 days to resolve the matter. Most disputes can be settled that way, and nothing in this paragraph stops either of us seeking urgent injunctive relief.