RULES OF PARTICIPATION

SheDisrupts Malaysia 2023 is an impact and action oriented gender lens venture competition and pre-acceleration program for women entrepreneurs who lead early-stage, impactful enterprises with disruptive innovations and tech solutions contributing to SDGs in Malaysia(“Programme”). The Programme is fully remote and will offer tools, resources and opportunities to women entrepreneurs and help them turn their ideas and economic potential into power to advance economic empowerment of women and girls.

The Programme is presented by Global Affairs Canada, FGV, Social Value Malaysia and Creatella Impact Inc.  (collectively, the “Organizers”).

On behalf of the Organizers, Creatella Impact Inc. is coordinating and managing the Programme. Creatella Impact, Inc. (Corporation) is a non-profit charitable organization incorporated in the United States of America, whose mission is to create impact by supporting social entrepreneurs and start-up businesses principally in emerging markets to build sustainable enterprises addressing social and environmental challenges, with a strong focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (“Creatella Impact”, “we” or “us”).

 

Rules of Participation

  1. In addition to the information provided on Programme website https://shedisrupts.org (“Website”), the following Rules of Participation (“ROP”) state the standards and conduct required of the Programme participants. The ROP shall apply to (a) Participants, (b) each individual, founder and team members of Startups, (c) anyone who has contacted Organizers through any means to find out more about or to participate in the Programme.  
  2. By submitting their registration, Participants expressly agree to be bound by the ROP.  Failure to comply with the ROP set out herein will invalidate the participation of the Participants in the Programme.
  3. Organizers reserve the right to change the format of the Programme.
  4. Organizers reserve the right to cancel the Programme or amend the ROP at any time as it is necessary without prior notice.  
  5. Participants (as defined below) shall indicate their acceptance of the ROP by ticking the boxes provided for this purpose on the application form when submitting their application online.
  6. The Participants acknowledge and agree to the characteristic and limit of the internet, especially as far as technical performance is concerned, response time to consult, or transfer information, the risks of interruption and more generally, the risks inherent to any connection and transmission on the internet, the absence of protection of certain data against any misappropriation and the risks of contamination by any viruses circulating on the network. 

 

Participants

Participation in the Programme is open to individuals at the minimum age of 18 years at the date of the initiation of the Programme (“Participant(s)”) who run a startup that is led by women and/or gender-balanced teams (“Startup(s)”), with access to the internet and an email address.

 

Startup’s Eligibility Requirements

1.Eligibility.  To qualify to participate in the Programme, the Participants shall meet the following Startup requirements:

(a)  Malaysia Focus – All startups are able to demonstrate that their primary target market is Malaysia. Incorporation is not required at this stage, however the startups need to be incorporated at the end of the programme if they want funding from investors.

(b) Women Leadership– Startup shall have at least one woman in a key leadership role and women have to own 20% or more of the startup ownership.

(c) Early Stage – Startup shall be an early stage startup preferably of less than 1M MYR (~USD270,000) in revenues over the past 12 months and/or less than 4M MYR (~USD1,000,000) in total funds raised.

(d) For-profit businesses – Startup shall be incorporated to pursue financial profit alongside social and environmental impact. Regretfully, not-for-profit entities will not be eligible.

(e) Traction and Scale – Qualifying startups need to have a proof of concept, prototype, product or service launched and preferably some early traction already.

(f) Impact – Startups need to address at least one of the SDGs.

(g)  Age – Lead entrant needs to be at least 18 on application deadline.

(h)   Language – The founder(s) shall have a good command of English

(i)  Availability – Startups shall be available to join the venture competition, pre-acceleration programme and demo day from 23 October , 2023 – 11 December, 2023 for  at least from 10:00 (GMT+8) to 17:00 (GMT+8)

(j)  Legal & others: 

    • No restriction towards applicants with history of bankruptcy, liquidation, judicial settlement, safeguarding issues, cessation of activity, etc. However, applicants without any legal impediments preferred. 
    • Leadership, board of directors and the entity are currently not subject to sanction measures under the United Nations financial sanctions lists.
    • Founders or board of directors shall have no affiliation with any political party in Malaysia or hold a position in government entities.

2.Verification.  Organizers reserve the right to verify the eligibility of all Participants.

 

Duration

The Programme will run between October 2023 to December 2023.

Organizers reserve the right to postpone, modify, cancel or repeat the Programme if circumstances demand. Any change will be notified by an announcement on the Website. In any event, the Organizers and its affiliates may not be held liable in the case of modification of the dates and duration of the Programme.

 

Registration and Timetable

1.Registration

The Participants shall follow the terms and conditions in this ROP to participate in the Programme:

(a)  The Programme is accessible online from a computer and/or any device with internet access via https://shedisrupts.org/ 

(b)  Only legal representatives of the Participants are authorized to enter the application into the Programme.

(c)  The Participant undertakes to fill in all the mandatory fields of the entry form accurately in order to validate their participation and be contacted. If a question is not applicable, please write “NA”. 

(d)  Any incomplete, erroneous, false, counterfeit or fraudulent entry may not be considered to be participating in the Programme.

(e)  By submitting the Startups and registering for the Programme, the Participant warrants to have all the rights, titles and/or interest in the Startup submitted and declares that the information it contains is true, current, accurate and complete, and that by submitting the Startup and registering to the Programme, the Participant is not and will not be violating any contract or third party rights including any patent, copyright, trade secret, proprietary or confidential information, trademark, publicity or privacy rights.

2.Timetable

The Participants shall follow the timetable below and failure to meet any of the deadlines may result in disqualification to participate in the Programme:

(a) Registration Period: 28 August 2023 – 8 October 2023

(b) Registration Deadline: 8 October 2023, 23:59 (GMT+8) Malaysia Time.  Any forms received after this date will NOT be accepted.  The Participants will be notified of the results by 20 October 2023.

(c) Selection of 50+ Startups: 18 October 2023

(d)   Round 1 Mentoring Sessions: 23 October – 30 October 2023

    • Mentoring and pitch training sessions for 50+ selected Startups

(d) Round 2  –  Pitch : 30 October – 10 November 2023

    • All 50+ Startups teams pitch 1-on-1 in front of industry experts/judges. Judges assessment period.

(e) Pre-acceleration Programme for Top 20 Startups: 20 November – 10 December 2023

(f) Demo Day for Top 20 Startups: 11 December 2023

    • All Top 20 pre-accelerated Startups pitch at Demo Day for invited VCs/investors.

 

Evaluation and Selection Process

1.Evaluation and Selection Process

(a) Screening for eligibility and selection for the Mentoring Programme: All Participants will be screened for eligibility and be assessed by the Organizers for selection of 50+ Startups for two Rounds of mentoring programme.

(b)   Selection for the pre-acceleration Programme: Pre-selected 50+ Startups will be assessed by experts/judges on a 1-on-1 pitching session and based on their inputs, the Organizers will select top 20 Startups for the pre-acceleration Programme using the criteria such as: (i) degree of potential for impact, (ii) market opportunity, scalability and business model, (iii) business model and financials, (iv) progress, traction and execution plan; and (v) team.

2.Final Decision

In the event of any dispute, whether such dispute concerns the conduct or eligibility of Participants, the results and/or any and all other matters relating to the Programme, the Organizers, and/or the judges’ decisions shall be considered final. No legal recourse shall be available to the Participants. 

 

Participation

If selected to 50+ selected Startups for Mentoring Programme and top 20 Startups for pre-acceleration Programme, the Participants shall commit to and available for the activities that are relevant to them:

1. Mentoring Programme

 The Participants of the 50+ selected Startups shall commit to attend and participate in:

(a)   Two mentoring and pitch training sessions at the arranged schedule

(b)   Preparing the materials for pitching and pitching 1-on-1 in front of experts, investors

(c)    Completing the survey and feedback

2. Pre-acceleration Programme 

The Participants of the Top 20 Startups finalist shall commit to attending and participating in a 3-week pre-acceleration Programme to be conducted virtually.

3. Demo Day

The Participants of the Top 20 Startups finalist shall commit to the following activities:

(a)     Preparing and submitting mandatory Startup kit for Demo Day

(b)     Pitching at live Demo Day

 

Participants Benefits

1. 3 Startups Winner:  Variety of benefits (prizes, perks, media promotion and potential investment from participating investors).

2. Top 20 Startups Finalist: In-kind prizes and perks.

3. Top 50+ selected Startups:  Capacity building workshops and expert mentoring, be featured in the Organizers media and perks.

4. All Participants:  Receiving structured expert feedback, perks, international exposure and media visibility, access to online and offline community of experts and potential investors.

 

Disqualification

1. Organizers Rights

(a) Organizers reserve the right to disqualify any Participant discovered to be ineligible.

(b) Organizers may cancel all or part of the Programme if it appears that fraud has occurred in any form whatsoever, including due to IT, within the framework of participation in the Programme or determining the winners.  Organizers reserve the right not to attribute prizes to the fraudsters and/or initiate proceedings against the perpetrators of such fraud before the competent jurisdictions.

2. Disqualification Events

By participating in the Programme, each Participant accepts all the conditions set out in ROP and agrees to be bound by the decisions of the Organizers, and/or the Judges and warrants that they are eligible to participate in the Programme. In the event of failure by a Participant to comply with the ROP, Organizers reserve the right to remove any entry or disqualify such Participant from the Programme, without the Participant being able to claim any recourse.  The following are the events that are  considered as event of failure if a Participant does not comply:

(a)  The Participants shall at all time not conduct any practices which may lead to criminal liability due to fraud or embezzlement, insolvency crimes, unfair competition, guaranteeing advantages, bribery, acceptance of bribes or other corruption crimes on the part of persons employed by them or other third parties.

(b) In the event of fraud or misconduct which affects the integrity of the Programme or the Organizers and/or its affiliated companies. 

(c)  In addition, a Participant may be disqualified: 

    • if Organizers have reasonable grounds to believe the Participant has breached any portion of the ROP including any of the organizational measures as set out in the Website; and/or 
    • if a Participant is found to be acting in an inappropriate, disruptive or unsportsmanlike manner or with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass any other person; and/or 
    • if there is any attempt by any Participant to deliberately damage or undermine the legitimate operation of the Programme. 

 

 General

1.The main language of The Programme shall be English.  The Participants shall have good command in English language.

2. The Participants shall bear any and all costs and expenses incurred by Participants in relation to the Programme, unless otherwise stated. 

3. Participants must be willing to participate in PR opportunities in relation to the Programme including having a short summary of their business, photographs and video footage featured online on the Organizers websites and social media channels and offline in various media publications. Participants shall not claim any compensation for taking part in the PR-related activities. 

4. The Organizers reserve the right, and the Participant agrees, to feature the Participant’s name, short business description, photo or video in any future promotional campaign in relation to the Programme.

 

Agreement

The Organizers take no responsibility for agreements made or relationships that develop between any of the Programme Participants, judges, mentors, investors, sponsors or other third-parties.  This includes the decision regarding how to distribute any cash or in-kind awards among the Participant’s team.  

 

Confidentiality

1.The application form along with any additional business information submitted by the Participants will be treated confidentially by the Organizers and their team members.  Other than a brief summary of the Startups (name of the business, brief description of the company, and field), no other information will be made available to the public without the prior authorisation of the relevant Participant. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Organizers, their team members, the judges and mentors shall not be held responsible if information relating to the Participant’s business is released to the public by third party.

2. Due to the nature of competition, we will not ask judges, mentors, facilitators, reviewers, staff, and audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements for any Participant. By participating in the Programme, Participants agree that neither the Organizers, nor their designate staffs/teams members assume any liability whatsoever for any disclosures of business plan information which may be made (whether inadvertently or otherwise) by any judge, mentor, facilitator, reviewer, staff/team member, audience member, or other individual connected with, participating in, viewing, hearing or receiving information from the Programme.

3. Any data or information discussed or divulged in public sessions, including Demo Day should be considered information that will likely enter the public domain, and competitors should not assume any right of confidentiality to any data or information discussed, divulged or presented in these sessions. Neither the Organizers nor their designated teams/staff assume any duty to screen or otherwise control the identity of those attending, viewing or hearing all or part of these public sessions. The Participants agree that by entering the Programme, they have been made aware that such attendees, viewers and recipients may include members of the media and potential competitors in addition to members of the financial and investor communities.

 

Third Party Applications

As part of the Programme application process, the Participant may be required to subscribe to applications or services provided by third parties. These may include document management services and digital technology solutions. 

The Organizers shall not be responsible for the services provided by third parties, including their terms and conditions of use, data collection policies or security management processes and procedures. The Participants shall use third party applications and services at their own risk and the Organizers shall not be liable for any issues arising out of such use.

 

Limit of Liability

1. The Organizers shall not accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any Participant participating in the Programme or as a result of accepting any prize. Furthermore, the Organizers will not accept any responsibility resulting from any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers, server providers, computer equipment, standard mail, etc. resulting in the failure to receive emails, telephone messages relating to the programme and/or other correspondence.  Nothing shall exclude liability for death and personal injury as a result of negligence.

2. The Organizers make no warranty in respect of and shall not be held liable for the accuracy and completeness of any information, drawings, designs or other documents of whatever nature relating to the Startups provided by the Participants. 

3. The Organizers shall not be held liable if, in the case of a force majeure or circumstances independent of its intention, the Programme had to be modified, shortened or cancelled.  The Organizers reserve the possibility, in any event, to extend the participation period and postpone any date announced.

4. The Organizers shall not be liable for any direct or indirect damage resulting from an interruption or malfunction of any kind and for any reason whatsoever or for any direct or indirect damage that would result, in any way, from connection Website.

5. The Organizers shall not be held liable for any issues resulting from the characteristic and limits of the internet, including but not limited to the transmission and/or receipt of any data and/or information on the internet, any malfunction of the internet network preventing the proper running or functioning of the Programme, any deft or any reception equipment or communication line, lost of any paper or electronic mail and loss of any data, consequences of any virus, IT bugs, or technical failure, any damage caused to a Participant’s computer or device, or any technical, any type of hardware or software fault, having prevented or limited the possibility of participating in the Competition or having damaged a Participant’s system.

6. Any modification to the ROP will enter into force once it is put online and any Participant will be considered to have agreed to them by the simple fact of their participation in the Programme, from the date of entry into force of the modification. 

7. Any Participant refusing the modification(s) made must withdraw from the Programme. No compensation may be requested by Participants. 

 

Intellectual Property

1. The Organizers take no part in, and have no liability for, the domestic or international intellectual property rights of competition participants.  Participants are responsible for their own intellectual property.  Participants must keep confidential information confidential.

2. By submitting an application, each Participant hereby represents and warrants to each of the Organizers that:

(a) they have all right, title and/or interest in the application submitted and that the information it contains is accurate and complete, 

(b) they are not and shall not be violating any contract or third party rights including any patent, copyright, trade secret, proprietary or confidential information, trademark, publicity or privacy right.  This could mean that they created the technology, that the patent is in their name, or that they have written permission of the person or organization that owns the intellectual property.  Any Participant that violates this will be automatically disqualified from the Programme. 

 

Data Protection

1. All Participants are required to read and consent to the Data Protection Notice (“Notice”) applicable to their participation. 

2. Data Protection Notice

INFORMATION AND CONSENT REGARDING THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA: PARTICIPANTS MUST READ THIS NOTICE BEFORE SUBMITTING INFORMATION ABOUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR BUSINESS. 

THE PARTICIPANTS HEREBY EXPRESSLY CONSENTS TO THE COLLECTION, USE, DISCLOSURE AND TRANSFER, IN ELECTRONIC OR OTHER FORM, OF THE PARTICIPANT’S PERSONAL DATA AS DESCRIBED IN THIS NOTICE BY AND AMONG, AS APPLICABLE, THE ORGANIZERS, AND THE ORGANIZERS’ TEAM MEMBERS AND ITS AFFILIATES FOR THE EXCLUSIVE PURPOSE OF IMPLEMENTING, ADMINISTERING AND MANAGING THE PARTICIPANT’S PARTICIPATION IN THE PROGRAMME.

Organizers may collect, use, disclose or otherwise process personal data of Participants of the Programme. This Notice applies to personal data in our possession or under our control, including personal data in the possession of organisations which we have engaged to collect, use, disclose or process personal data for our purposes. 

 

Collection and Use of Personal Data the Participants 

Depending on the nature of your interaction with us, some examples of personal data which we may collect from you include your name and identification information such as your national identification number, contact information such as your address, email address or telephone number, nationality, gender, date of birth, resumé, photographs and other audio-visual information, current occupation and financial information such as bank account information (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Personal Data”).

We may collect and use Participants personal data for any or all of the following purposes: 

(a) managing and administering the Programme and communicating with Participants

(b) verifying Participants identity; 

(c) updating the Programme, responding to, handling, and processing queries, requests, applications, and feedback from Participants;

(d) managing Participants relationship with us;

(e) promotional campaigns, public relations and marketing opportunities in relation to the Programme, including having a short summary of Participants business, photographs and video footage featured online on the Programme Website and the Organizers’ website and social media channels and offline in various media publications;

(f) sending programme and marketing information about the Programme and Organizers including notifying you of our events, initiatives, investments and other information;

(g) complying with any applicable laws, regulations, codes of practice, guidelines, or rules, or to assist in law enforcement and investigations conducted by any governmental and/or regulatory authority; 

(h) any other purposes for which Participant have provided the information; 

(i) transmitting to any unaffiliated third parties including our third party service providers and agents, and relevant governmental and/or regulatory authorities, whether in New York or abroad, for the aforementioned purposes; and

(j) any other incidental business purposes related to or in connection with the above.

 

Disclosure and Transfer of Personal Data of the Participants

We may disclose and transfer Participants personal data: 

(a) where such disclosure is required for performing obligations in the course of or in connection with the Programme; 

(b) to our affiliates, other Organizers, mentors, judges, partners and potential investors, for the purpose of The Programme administration, organizing the mentoring, Pre-acceleration, evaluation, pitching, demo day, networking sessions and potential funding or investment of the Participants. These affiliates, mentors, judges, partners and potential investors may be located outside New York and in any jurisdiction; or 

(c) to third party service providers, agents and other organisations in any jurisdiction we have engaged to perform any of the functions listed in above for us. 

The purposes listed in the foregoing paragraphs may continue to apply even in situations where your relationship with us (for example, the end of participation with The Programme) has been terminated or altered in any way, for a reasonable period thereafter, including Organizers right to feature the Participants’ names in promotional campaigns for their future programmes.

 

Access to and Correction of Personal Data

Participants may request access to any information held by Organizers and to correct any inaccuracies.

If a Participant wishes to make (a) an access request for access to a copy of the personal data which we hold about such Participant or information about the ways in which we use or disclose your personal data, or (b) a correction request to correct or update any of Participants personal data which we hold about the Participant, such Participant may submit the request in writing or via email at the contact details provided below. 

We will respond to such requests as soon as reasonably practicable.  If we are unable to provide you with any personal data or to make a correction requested by you, we shall generally inform you of the reasons why we are unable to do so (except where we are not required to do so under the relevant applicable laws). 

 

Protection of Personal Data

[To safeguard your personal data from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal or similar risks, we have introduced appropriate administrative, and technical measures such as up-to-date antivirus protection, encryption and the use of privacy filters to secure all storage and transmission of personal data by us, and disclosing personal data both internally and to our authorized third party service providers and agents only on a need-to-know basis.]

[The Participants should be aware, however, that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. While security cannot be guaranteed, we strive to protect the security of Participants information and are constantly reviewing and enhancing our information security measures.] 

 

Accuracy of Personal Data 

We generally rely on personal data provided by the Participants (or their authorized representative). In order to ensure that the Participant personal data is current, complete and accurate, please update us if there are changes to the personal data by informing our Data Protection Contact in writing via email at the contact details provided below. 

 

Retention of Personal Data 

We may retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, or as required or permitted by relevant applicable laws. 

 

Data Protection Contact

The Participants may contact the email below for any enquiries or feedback on our personal data protection policies and procedures, or if the Participant wishes to make any update, correction or request:

guillaume.catella@creatella.org

 

Effect of Notice and Changes to Notice

We may revise this Notice from time to time without any prior notice. You may determine if any such revision has taken place by referring to the date on which this Notice was last updated. Your continued use of our services constitutes your acknowledgement and acceptance of such changes. 

 

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

The ROP shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without regard to the choice of law principles thereof.  Any action, claim, suit or other legal proceeding relating to these Rules of Participations shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in New York County, State of New York, USA (or any appellate courts therefrom). The parties expressly waive any objection based on personal jurisdiction, venue or forum non conveniens. EACH PARTY HEREBY IRREVOCABLY WAIVES ALL RIGHTS TO TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY ACTION, CLAIM, SUIT, PROCEEDING OR COUNTERCLAIM (WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE) ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THIS AGREEMENT OR THE ACTIONS OF SUCH PARTY IN THE NEGOTIATION, ADMINISTRATION, PERFORMANCE AND ENFORCEMENT HEREOF.

 

Effective date:       7 August 2023

Last updated:        7 August 2023

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