Smile Invest Privacy Statement
Summary: 2-minute read
We take our obligation to protect your privacy seriously! That’s why we provide you with this 2 minute-read summary, including the necessary information on how we process your Personal Data.
What you should know:
First of all : you always remain the sole owner of your data.
To whom does this Privacy & Cookie Statement apply?
This statement applies to any individual whose Personal Data Smile Invest may collect, use share or otherwise process, in particular:
- Visitors and users of the Smile Invest website (smile-invest.com)
- (Representatives of) investors and former investors who have made or are considering making an investment in Smile Invest NV or funds managed by Smile Invest NV
- Representatives of portfolio companies in which Smile Invest NV has made or is considering making an investment
- (Representatives of) other business partners who interact with Smile Invest in relation to Smile Invest’s business activities
- (Representatives of) suppliers of goods or services, including investment bankers, consultants, lawyers, accountants, and other third party providers that interact with Smile Invest
- Applicants that apply for a position at Smile Invest
- Any other individuals whose personal data Smile Invest may process
What information do we collect about you?
- When you contact us or enter into a contract with us as a (future) investor, representative of an investment or portfolio company, business partner or supplier, we may collect and process your contact details (such as your (employer/company) name, email address or phone number); investment and financial data (such as bank account numbers and transaction details); contractual data (such as the date and type of our agreement) and compliance-related personal data (such as passport information and other “Know Your Customer” information required to perform compliance checks).
- By applying for a job at Smile Invest, we collect the information you provide to us, such as identification details, resume and cover letter.
- By contacting us through any medium, we collect information about the communication you had with Smile Invest, including content and technical details.
- Finally, we use cookies to collect information about your use of our Website.
Why do we collect this information?
- To respond to your requests.
- To establish and/or maintain our contractual relationship.
- To provide you with the requested information and carry out our business activities.
- To evaluate your application.
- Finally, to improve our website.
Who has access to your data?
- Only the relevant part of Smile Invest‘s team has access to the information you provide to us.
- Furthermore, we use some suppliers and service providers, such as but not limited to computer security, digital solutions and web hosting services. These parties are legally obliged to ensure your privacy at all times, and will only process data in accordance with our purposes.
- Finally, it may happen that a third party is commissioned to process data. However, they can only do this for aforementioned purposes and upon our instructions and signature of a data processing agreement.
What do you control?
- You can ask us at any moment to modify or erase your data. To do so, send us an email to privacy@smile-invest.com and follow the procedure as described in our entire Privacy Statement under Article 5.7.
- Also, you can always request a copy of all the information we collected about you by sending an email to the same address.
What do we do to protect your data?
- We adopted the required safety measures on a technical and an organizational level.
- Your data is stored on high-security servers within the European Union.
- In order to improve our services, solutions, Website and/or application, Smile Invest may use the data you provided. However, at all times, Smile Invest shall use this data in a GDPR-compliant form, using state of the art software and solutions.
- We have implemented internal procedures to ensure the confidentiality of our IT-infrastructure and to make sure it is managed responsibly.
If you want to know more: we invite you to read our entire Privacy & Cookie Statement, where everything is explained in detail.
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Smile Invest Privacy Statement
Smile Invest makes it a matter of utmost importance to respect the privacy of our (future) investors, business partners, suppliers, visitors and users and we are committed to treat your Personal Data in the strictest confidentiality, in accordance with the data protection legislation in force, the present Privacy and Cookie Statement (hereinafter the “Privacy Statement” and “Cookie Policy’’), and the applicable standards of fair information practices.
This privacy statement is intended to inform you, in a transparent manner, about the data we collect, the purpose for collecting it, the way we use it and the rights you have regarding the processing of such data.
You are not obliged to provide us your Personal Data, however understand that in some cases we will not be able to carry out the requested business activities or provide you the requested information in case you refuse to provide us certain Personal Data.
Smile Invest reserves the right to change, modify and update this Privacy Statement from time to time by posting a revised version on this Website. Therefore, we recommend you regularly consult this Privacy Statement, to make sure that you are aware of all changes.
If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at the following address: privacy@smile-invest.com.
Article 1 - General
1.1. Smile Invest Management Company NV, (hereinafter, “we”, “us”, “our”, “Smile Invest”), with registered office at Diestsesteenweg 31a, 3210 Lubbeek (Belgium) and registered with the Legal Entities Register under business registration number 0675.995.671, takes responsibility for the processing of your Personal Data as a “data controller”, including with regard to the use of the Smile Invest website (smile-invest.com).
1.2. In our Privacy Statement, “Personal Data” shall mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. Smile Invest may collect, use share or otherwise process Personal Data of individuals belonging to the following categories:
- Visitors and users of the Smile Invest website (smile-invest.com) (hereinafter “Visitors”)
- (Representatives of) investors and former investors who have made or are considering making an investment in Smile Invest NV or funds managed by Smile Invest NV (hereinafter “Investors”)
- Representatives of portfolio companies in which Smile Invest NV has made or is considering making an investment (hereinafter “Portfolio Representatives”)
- (Representatives of) business partners who interact with Smile Invest in relation to its business activities (hereinafter “Business Partners”)
- (Representatives of) suppliers of goods or services, including investment bankers, consultants, lawyers, accountants, and other third party providers that interact with Smile Invest (hereinafter “Suppliers”)
- Applicants that apply for a position at Smile Invest (hereinafter “Applicants”)
- Any other individuals whose personal data Smile Invest may process (hereinafter “Other Individuals”)
1.3. Smile Invest processes Personal Data in accordance with the legislation in force, and, in particular, Regulation 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of Personal Data and the free movement of such data, applicable from 25 May 2018 (hereinafter the "GDPR").
1.4. The access to or use of our Website (smile-invest.com) implies your full and unreserved understanding of this Privacy Statement as well as its Cookie Policy. This means that you were fully informed to how Smile Invest collects, uses and processes your Personal Data, in accordance with the provisions of this Privacy Statement and for the purposes listed in this Privacy Statement.
1.5. This Privacy Statement is only valid for the pages hosted on our Website and for the business activities pursued by Smile Invest. It is not valid for the pages and websites hosted by any third party to which Smile Invest may refer or provide a link to and whose privacy policies may differ. Smile Invest will therefore not be held responsible for any data processed on these third party websites or by them.
Article 2 – What personal data does Smile Invest collect
2.1. Smile Invest may process, for the purposes mentioned in article 3, the following categories of Personal Data:
Data:
- Category 1
- Individual (professional) identification data
Relevant data subjects:
- Investors
- Portfolio Representatives
- Business Partners
- Suppliers
- Applicants
- Other Individuals
Details:
- First name, name, phone number, email address, address and country;
- Information concerning your employer or company, such as company name, company address, invoice details and VAT-number;
- Insofar as applicable: social media information, such as your (company’s) username(s) on your social media.
- Information about our/your communication, including content, IP address and technical details.
Context:
- By contacting us, via telephone, email or any other communication service;
- By (considering) entering into a business relationship with us (e.g. when you (consider to) enter into a contract with us as an investor, business partner, supplier, etc.);
- By handing over your business card;
- Via social media (e.g. when you follow us or contact us via LinkedIn).
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Data:
- Category 2
- Investment and transaction information (to the extent such data constitutes Personal Data)
Relevant data subjects:
- Investors
- Portfolio Representatives
- Business Partners
Details:
- Information with respect to investments and related financial transactions involving Investors, such as transactions effected, shareholdings, information regarding capital calls and distributions, bank account numbers, etc.
- Information with respect to portfolio investments and related financial transactions made by Smile Invest NV, such as transaction information, shareholdings, bank account numbers, etc.
Context:
- By (considering) making an investment in Smile Invest NV or funds managed by Smile Invest NV.
- By (considering) entering into a business relationship with us (e.g. when Smile Invest NV has made or is considering making an investment).
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Data:
- Category 3
- Contractual data (to the extent such data constitutes Personal Data)
Relevant data subjects:
- Investors
- Portfolio Representatives
- Business Partners
- Suppliers
Details:
- Details with respect to agreements executed by Smile Invest or Smile Invest NV (e.g. date and type of the agreement, financial data and other Personal Data related to the agreement).
Context:
- By entering into an agreement with us.
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Data:
- Category 4
- Compliance data
Relevant data subjects:
- Investors
- Portfolio Representatives
- Suppliers
Details:
- Personal data required for compliance obligations that apply to Smile Invest, e.g. government identifiers, passport information, financial information, tax residency, tax identification information, individual beneficial ownership data and other "Know Your Customer" due diligence information.
Context:
- By entering into a business relationship with us.
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Data:
- Category 5
- Your data as an Applicant
Relevant data subjects:
- Applicants
Details:
- First name, name, phone number, email address, address, (optional) photo and country;
- Resume and cover letter.
Context:
- By applying for a job or internship at Smile Invest.
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Data:
- Category 6
- Your communications through our business relationship or Website
Relevant data subjects:
- Visitors
- Investors
- Portfolio Representatives
- Business Partners
- Suppliers
Details:
- Information about your communications with Smile Invest, through our Website or as a result of our business relationship, including technical details and content.
Context:
- By contacting us, via telephone, email or any other communication service.
- By (considering) entering into a business relationship with us and communicating in that context with us.
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Data:
- Category 7
- Information about your visit and use of our Website
Relevant data subjects:
- Visitors
Details:
- By accessing our Website, the servers consulted automatically record certain data, by placing cookies.
Context:
- By placing cookies (see Our Cookie Policy)
Article 3 – The legal bases and purposes of data processing
We only process your data when we have a specific purpose and lawful basis to do so and only process what is relevant for the pursuit of each specific purpose in question, in particular:
3.1. General purposes
Data
- Category 1
- Individual (professional) identification data
Legal basis
- Necessity for the performance of the agreement we have entered or are considering entering into with you and/or
- Your consent and/or
- Our legitimate interests
Purpose
- Identification data will be processed by Smile Invest in order to provide our services, carry out our business activities, manage the contractual relationship we may have with you, answer your questions, provide information, advise you regarding our services, etc.
- Dependent on the specific circumstances, some of these processing activities will be necessary for the performance of an agreement we may have entered into or will enter into with you. Others will be required in order to pursue our legitimate interests, including for direct marketing purposes. Finally, where required by law, we will ask for your prior consent before processing certain of your identification data.
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Data
- Category 2
- Investment and transaction information (to the extent such data constitutes Personal Data)
Legal basis
- Necessity for the performance of the agreement we have entered or are considering entering into with you
Purpose
- Investment and transaction information will be processed by Smile Invest in order to manage investments in Smile Invest NV and investments in portfolio companies and, in general, to carry out Smile Invest’s business activities (e.g. administering payments in the context of capital calls, distributions, portfolio investments, exits, etc.).
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Data
- Category 3
- Contractual data (to the extent such data constitutes Personal Data)
Legal basis
- Necessity for the performance of the agreement we have entered or are considering entering into with you
Purpose
- Contractual data will be processed by Smile Invest in order to manage the commercial and contractual relationship we may have with you (e.g. for payment and invoicing purposes).
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Data
- Category 4
- Compliance data
Legal basis
- Necessity for compliance with legal obligations
Purpose
- Compliance data will be processed by Smile Invest in order to be able to comply with our tax and legal obligations, such as any applicable tax reporting and Know Your Customer checks (including, anti-money laundering procedures, counter-terrorist financing procedures, politically-exposed-person checks, sanctions checks, etc.).
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Data
- Category 5
- Your data as an Applicant
Legal basis
- Necessity for the performance of the agreement we have entered or are considering entering into with you and/or
- Our legitimate interests and/or
- Your consent
Purpose
- Applicant data will be processed by Smile Invest to evaluate your application and allow us to pursue a recruitment policy.
- Dependent on the specific circumstances, some of these processing activities will be necessary for the performance of the agreement we are considering entering into with you. Others will be required in order to pursue our legitimate interests related to the improvement of our recruitment policy and process. Finally, where required by law, we will ask for your prior consent before processing certain of your applicant data.
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Data
- Category 6
- Your communications through our business relationship or Website
Legal basis
- Necessity for the performance of the agreement we have entered or are considering entering into with you and/or
- Your consent
Purpose
- Your communications may be processed by Smile Invest where necessary in the course of the execution of the agreement we have entered or are considering entering into with you.
- Smile Invest may also process your communications based on the consent you provided by actively contacting us via our Website.
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Data
- Category 7
- Information about your visit and use of our Website
Legal basis
- Your consent and/or
- Legitimate interest to improve our Website and our services.
Purpose
- Information about your visit and use of our Website will be processed by Smile Invest in order to:
- facilitate the availability and use of the Website;
- analyse, adapt and improve the content of the Website;
- personalize your experience on the Website;
- maintain and improve the security of our Website;
- create statistics.
- Dependent on the specific circumstances, some of these processing activities will be required in order to pursue our legitimate interests related to the management of our Website. Where required by law, we will ask for your prior consent before processing certain of your data related to the use and visit of our Website.
3.2. Direct Marketing
Your Personal Data will only be used for direct marketing purposes if you have provided your consent or if it is based upon our legitimate interest.
Your Personal Data will not be used for direct marketing purposes for any services that would not be identical or similar to those to which you have already subscribed, unless you have previously explicitly consented to such use by ticking the boxes provided for this purpose ("opt-in").
When you give us your consent to use your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes, you retain the right to revoke such consent at any time, upon request and free of charge. You may simply communicate your request by clicking the unsubscribe button below every promotional e-mail or by writing to us via the following e-mail address: privacy@smile-invest.com.
3.3. Transfer to third parties
Smile Invest treats Personal Data as confidential information and will not disclose or communicate them to third parties under any condition or for any purpose other than those specified in this Privacy Statement, or under the conditions in which the law requires us to do so.
Smile Invest may communicate your personal information to third parties to the extent that this is necessary to be able to carry out our business activities, including but not limited to suppliers and service providers that offer services related to reporting, accounting, fund management, IT-support, hosting, computer security or other specific services. In any case, these third parties will not communicate this information to other third parties, except in the following situations:
- the communication of this information by such third parties to their suppliers or subcontractors is necessary to be able to carry out our business activities;
- such third parties are obliged by applicable law or regulations to communicate certain information or documents to the competent authorities.
The communication of this information to the aforementioned third parties shall, in all circumstances, be limited to what is strictly necessary for the purposes specified in this Privacy Statement or as required by the applicable law or regulations.
Smile Invest will not sell or hire out your Personal Data to third parties, except in the situations described in this Privacy Statement or unless you explicitly provide your prior consent.
3.4. Legal requirements
In extraordinary circumstances it may occur that Smile Invest is obliged to transfer your Personal Data following a court order, or in order to comply with imperative laws and/or regulations. Smile Invest will, if reasonably possible, try to inform you beforehand, unless revealing this information is subject to legal constraints.
Article 4 – The storage period
Smile Invest will store your Personal Data for the duration necessary to achieve the purposes listed in article 3 of this Privacy Statement, including for as long as this is essential for the contractual relationship between you and Smile Invest.
Smile Invest may also store your Personal Data in order to comply with all applicable laws or as part of legal requirements, including storage obligations after the termination of the contractual relationship between you and Smile Invest. Therefore, the retention periods mentioned below shall not apply where Smile Invest is legally obliged to store your personal data for shorter or longer periods of time, including by applicable statutes of limitation for invoicing, payment, accounting, tax and regulatory compliance.
Retention periods
Data:
- Category 1
- Individual (professional) identification data
Retention period:
We will keep your identification data as long as its necessary to communicate with you, which is never longer than ten (10) years after the first request or contact. In case of a contractual relationship, we will not keep your identification data longer than required for the purposes identified in this Privacy Statement, which may be for up to (ten) 10 years after the end of the contractual relationship.
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Data:
- Category 2
- Investment and transaction information (to the extent such data constitutes Personal Data)
Retention period:
We will keep your investment and transaction information for as long as its necessary for the purposes identified in this Privacy Statement, which may be for up to (ten) 10 years after the end of the contractual relationship.
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Data:
- Category 3
- Contractual data (to the extent such data constitutes Personal Data)
Retention period:
We will keep your contractual data for as long as its necessary for the purposes identified in this Privacy Statement, which may be for up to (ten) 10 years after the end of the contractual relationship.
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Data:
- Category 4
- Compliance data
Retention period:
We will keep your compliance data for as long as its necessary for the purposes identified in this Privacy Statement, which may be for up to (ten) 10 years after the end of the business relationship.
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Data:
- Category 5
- Your data as an Applicant
Retention period:
We will keep your data as an Applicant no longer than five (5) years after the last qualitative contact with the Applicant.
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Data:
- Category 6
- Your communications through our business relationship or Website
Retention period:
We keep your communications through our business relationship for as long as it is necessary to communicate with you, which is never longer than 10 (ten) years after the first request or contact. In case of a contractual relationship, we will not keep your communications through our services longer than 10 (ten) years after the end of the contractual relationship.
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Data:
- Category 7
- Information about your visit and use of our Website
Retention period:
With regards to cookies the retention period may vary depending on the specific cookie, ranging from end of your browser session to 2 years. See the Cookie Policy below for more information.
Article 5 – Your rights
5.1. Right of access and right to obtain a copy
At any time, you have the right to freely obtain access to your Personal Data, as well as to be informed about the purpose of the processing by Smile Invest.
5.2. Right to rectification, erasure or restriction
You always have the right to ask us to rectify your Personal Data when you think it is inaccurate.
You can also request the processing of your Personal Data to be restricted if you think that your data is inaccurate and you subsequently notified us about this.
In addition, you have the right to ask us to erase your Personal Data in as far we were not able to anonymize it.
5.3. Right to object:
You have the right to object to the processing of your Personal Data when you have and provide us serious and legitimate reasons to do so.
You also have the right to object to the use of your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes. In such case, you do not need to provide a specific reasoning for your objection.
5.4. Right to data portability:
You have the right to obtain your Personal Data, which is processed by Smile Invest in a structured, commonly used format and/or to transfer this data to another data controller.
5.5. Right to withdraw consent:
When the processing of your Personal Data by Smile Invest is based on your prior consent, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.
5.6. Automated decisions and profiling:
You have the right to request us not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
5.7. Exercising your rights:
You can exercise your rights by contacting us with a copy of the essential parts of your ID, such as name and date of birth, as attachment:
Either through e-mail to privacy@smile-invest.com
Or via ordinary mail to:
Smile Invest Management Company NV
Diestsesteenweg 31a
3210 Lubbeek, Belgium
5.8. Right to file a complaint:
You have the right to file a complaint with the supervising Data Protection Authority:
Data Protection Authority
Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussel
Tel: +32 (0)2 274 48 00
Fax: +32 (0)2 274 48 35
Email: contact(at)apd-gba.be
This is without prejudice to proceedings before the civil courts. If you are from an EU Member State other than Belgium, you may also file a complaint with your national data protection authority (a list of the data protection authority for each EU-member state can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm).
If you have suffered damage as a result of the processing of your Personal Data, you may file a claim for compensation.
Article 6 – Safety and confidentiality
Smile Invest has adopted safety measures which are suited on a technical, organizational and physical level to avoid the destruction, the loss, the forgery, the adjustment, the non-authorised access or the notification of the Personal Data by accident to a third party, as well as the non-authorised processing of these data.
Nevertheless, if these events would occur and would affect your Personal Data, Smile Invest will inform you of the breach without undue delay, including a summary description of the potential impact and a recommendation on measures to mitigate the possible adverse effects of the breach.
Examples of safety measures adopted by Smile Invest include:
- (Physical/Digital) Access control systems;
- Password management systems;
- Internal Privacy and Information Security Policies; and
- Secure data storage
Smile Invest shall not be liable in any way for direct or indirect damages caused by a wrongfully or improper use of the Personal Data by a third party.
At the same time, you also share responsibility for maintaining the privacy and security of the services, for example: by not allowing any third party to have insight in your confidential communication(s).
Article 7 – Applicable law and juristiction
This Privacy Statement is managed, interpreted and executed in accordance with Belgian law which exclusively applies to every potential dispute.
The courts of Leuven have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute arising out of or in connection to the interpretation or execution of the present Privacy Statement.