Terms of Service

1. About these terms

These Terms of Service govern your use of Veridax Forge, operated by Muver. By accessing or using our service, you agree to be bound by these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use our service.

2. Acceptance of terms

By creating an account, submitting a validation request, or otherwise using our service, you confirm that you are at least 18 years old and have the legal authority to enter into these terms. If you are using the service on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you have authority to bind that organisation.

3. Our service

Veridax Forge provides an AI-powered validation engine that helps founders pressure-test business ideas. Services include AI verdicts, community panels, professional verification, and build engagements. Features and availability may change over time.

4. Acceptable use

You must not misuse our service. Specifically, you agree not to:

• Use the service for any unlawful purpose.
• Engage in fraud, spam, or deceptive practices.
• Infringe intellectual property rights of others.
• Interfere with the security or integrity of our systems, including malware, probing, or scraping.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code.
• Circumvent any technical limits or usage restrictions.
• Resell, redistribute, or commercially exploit the service without authorisation.

5. Intellectual property

Muver retains all ownership rights in the service, including software, documentation, branding, and underlying technology. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the service within the scope of your selected plan. You retain ownership of any content you submit, and you grant us a limited licence to host and process that content solely to provide the service to you.

5a. Founder idea confidentiality

Your idea is yours. Veridax acts as a custodian, not a co-owner, and never claims rights over the ideas you submit. When you choose to disclose an idea to community validators or verified professionals through the platform, the following rules apply:

• NDA at the gate. Every validator and verified professional must accept the active Veridax Non-Disclosure Agreement before any idea is shown to them. Acceptances are recorded with timestamp and IP hash.
• Audit trail. Every disclosure is logged — who viewed it, in what mode (full or redacted), and when. Founders can see this audit trail on their request page.
• Watermarking. All idea-derived material shown to validators/professionals is visually watermarked with the viewer's identifier and the timestamp of access.
• Founder-controlled redaction. You may switch a request to Redacted mode at any time. In Redacted mode, an automated process removes names, brands, customer identifiers, and contact information before disclosure.
• Minimum necessary disclosure. We share with each validator/professional only what is needed to give you useful feedback — not your full account or session history.

Breach consequences. Any validator or professional who copies, redistributes, publicly discloses, or commercially exploits a founder's idea outside the scope of providing feedback on the platform is in material breach of these Terms and the Veridax NDA. Consequences include, without limitation: immediate removal from the platform, forfeiture of badges, credits, and pending payouts, and our right (and the founder's right) to pursue any remedy available at law, including injunctive relief and damages.

Honest scope. Veridax is not a patent office, a trade-secret registry, or a substitute for legal IP protection. Our protection layers reduce the risk and friction of structured idea-sharing on the platform — they do not create new statutory IP rights. For ideas where formal protection matters, consult a qualified attorney before disclosure.

5b. Platform IP & trade secrets

The Veridax Forge platform itself — including its validation engine, scoring rubrics, the underlying 12-principle methodology, AI prompts, rigor and audit checks, validator-only views, internal scoring fields, report internals, and related workflows — is the proprietary methodology of Muver and constitutes Muver's trade secrets. Aspects of the platform are also the subject of a filed patent application (patent pending, South Africa).

By using the service in any capacity (founder, validator, verified professional, or visitor with gated access), you agree that you will not:

• Copy, reproduce, republish, or redistribute Muver's methodology, rubrics, prompts, or report internals outside the platform.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, scrape, or attempt to derive the underlying scoring logic, prompts, or trade-secret content.
• Use platform outputs, rubrics, or methodology to train, fine-tune, or build a competing model, dataset, scoring product, or validation service.
• Disclose validator-only screens, internal scoring fields, or non-public methodology to any third party.

Validators and verified professionals are additionally bound by the Veridax NDA, which applies reciprocally: it protects founder ideas and the platform's own trade-secret methodology that becomes visible during participation.

Breach consequences. Material breach of this section results in immediate removal from the platform, forfeiture of badges, credits, and pending payouts, and Muver's right to pursue any remedy available at law, including injunctive relief, account-of-profits, and damages.

6. Payment, billing, and refunds

Veridax is the seller of record for all orders. Card and EFT payments are processed by PCI-compliant third-party payment processors (currently Paystack and Yoco for South African customers, with Ozow for instant EFT). These processors handle card data and settlement; they do not act as merchant of record.

Prices, taxes, billing cycles, and applicable VAT are shown at checkout and on your invoice. By completing a purchase you authorise us (and our payment processors) to charge the displayed amount to your chosen payment method.

We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with your purchase, you can request a full refund within 30 days of your order date by emailing support@veridax.co.za. Approved refunds are returned to the original payment method.

7. Service level

We do not guarantee that the service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free. The service is provided "as is" and "as available." We disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

7a. Nature of verdicts and outputs

All outputs of the Veridax Forge service — including AI verdicts (PERSEVERE / TEST FIRST / PIVOT), validation matrices, risk lists, execution paths, community panel results, professional verifications, investor research, and downloadable reports (collectively, the "Outputs") — are decision-support information based on the inputs you provide. The Outputs are not legal, financial, tax, investment, accounting, regulatory, medical, engineering, or other regulated professional advice.

No advisor, broker, fiduciary, agent, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship is created between you and Muver by your use of the service or receipt of any Output. You acknowledge that:

• The Outputs depend on the accuracy and completeness of the information you supply, and on assumptions that may not hold in your specific market.
• AI-generated content can be incomplete, inaccurate, biased, or out of date.
• Verdict labels (PERSEVERE / TEST FIRST / PIVOT) are summary recommendations, not guarantees of any commercial, legal, regulatory, or financial outcome.
• You are solely responsible for any decision you take, or do not take, in reliance on the Outputs, and for obtaining independent professional advice where appropriate before acting.

7b. Verified professionals and community validators

Veridax Forge offers introductions to verified professionals and community validators through the platform. Veridax acts as an introduction and workflow platform only. We are not a party to any engagement, advice, or service provided between you and a verified professional or validator, and we do not supervise, control, or guarantee their work, opinions, conduct, fees, qualifications, or outcomes.

Verified professionals and validators act independently. They are solely responsible for their own professional advice and for compliance with any regulatory regime that applies to them — including, without limitation, the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act (FAIS) and FSCA rules, IRBA, SAICA, the Legal Practice Council, the HPCSA, and any equivalent body in another jurisdiction. Verification of a professional's credentials by Veridax is an administrative check, not an endorsement of their advice.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Muver is not liable for any act, omission, advice, recommendation, breach of duty, or loss arising from your dealings with a verified professional or community validator.

Verified professionals are additionally bound by the Professional Terms of Service. Before any paid engagement (advisory call or signed verification) begins, both you and the professional are asked to accept an Engagement Letter generated for that specific engagement. That letter records scope, fee, your acknowledgement that the advice flows directly between you and the professional, and the liability allocation between the parties. A booking does not proceed until both parties have accepted.

8. Account credentials

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You must provide accurate information and keep it updated.

9. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the service without notice for: material breach of these terms, non-payment, security or fraud risk, or repeated or serious policy violations. Upon termination, your right to use the service ceases immediately. We may retain certain data as required by law or for legitimate business purposes.

10. Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Muver's aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the service, the Outputs, or these terms shall be limited to the fees you actually paid to Muver in the six (6) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Without limiting the above, Muver shall not be liable for: (a) any business, commercial, strategic, investment, fundraising, hiring, or operational decision you take or fail to take in reliance on an Output; (b) lost profits, lost revenue, lost opportunities, lost savings, lost data, lost goodwill, or reputational harm; (c) the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of AI-generated content; (d) any act, omission, advice, or service of a verified professional, community validator, or other third party; (e) outcomes of any experiment, launch, pivot, or investor engagement; or (f) any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, even if advised of their possibility.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability where it cannot lawfully be excluded or limited — including for fraud, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or rights you cannot waive under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008.

11. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Muver from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from your content, unlawful use of the service, or violation of these terms.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of South Africa. Any disputes shall be resolved in the courts of South Africa.

12a. CPA and POPIA acknowledgement

Nothing in these terms is intended to limit or exclude any non-excludable right you have under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA) or the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). Where any clause would be unenforceable under those Acts, that clause is read down to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining clauses continue in full force.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes via email or through the service. Continued use of the service after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

14. Contact us

If you have any questions about these terms, please contact us at support@veridax.co.za.