Vula Finance Privacy Policy

Tswelopele Synergy Solutions (Pty) Ltd ("Tswelopele", "we", "us" or "our") operates Vula Finance, a financial management platform for small business owners in South Africa. We respect your privacy and are committed to handling personal, business and financial information responsibly.

1. Who is responsible for your information?

Tswelopele Synergy Solutions (Pty) Ltd is responsible for the processing of personal information collected through Vula Finance, subject to applicable law including the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

Privacy enquiries: info@tswelopelesynergy.co.za

2. Information we collect

Depending on the features you use, Vula Finance may collect:

• Account information: name, email address, password/authentication information, account type, preferred language and profile information.
• Business information: business name, legal/trading name, registration details, industry, business stage, contact details, location, ownership and staffing information.
• Financial information: revenue, expenses, cash balances, amounts owed, loans, transactions, categories, vendors, financial goals and financial reports.
• Business documents: receipts, invoices, bank statements, contracts, tax and CIPC documents, certificates and other files you choose to upload.
• Funding and support information: funding opportunities, applications, grants, training and business-support records.
• Information you choose to share: information made available to mentors, funders or programme organisations through Vula Finance's sharing controls.
• Device and technical information: information necessary for the app and website to operate securely, such as browser/device characteristics, authentication/session information and technical diagnostics where provided by the platform infrastructure.

3. Camera, files and location

Vula Finance can allow you to select or upload images and documents from your device. Receipt capture uses an image you choose to provide so that the transaction can be prepared for your confirmation. We do not need access to your photo library or files simply because you have installed Vula Finance; access occurs when you choose a relevant upload feature.

Vula Finance can request device location when you actively choose the "Auto-detect my location" feature in your business profile. This is used to populate business latitude and longitude. We do not use background location for this feature.

We do not intentionally collect contacts, SMS messages, call logs or microphone recordings through the core Vula Finance features described in this policy.

4. How we use your information

We use information to:

• create and maintain your Vula Finance account;
• provide financial record-keeping, reporting and business-management features;
• process transactions and receipts that you submit;
• generate financial insights, business health information and other requested assistance;
• store and organise documents and business records;
• help you discover or track relevant funding, training and business-support opportunities;
• facilitate sharing that you explicitly authorise with mentors, funders or programme organisations;
• protect accounts, prevent misuse and maintain the security and reliability of the service;
• respond to support requests and communicate important service information; and
• comply with legal and regulatory obligations.

5. Financial and sensitive information

Vula Finance is designed to handle business and financial information. We treat this information as confidential and limit access according to the permissions and access controls available in the platform. You should only upload documents and information that you are authorised to provide.

Vula Finance is not a bank, lender, financial adviser or accounting firm. Information and insights generated by the platform are provided as management tools and should not be treated as professional financial, tax, legal or investment advice.

6. Sharing your information

We do not sell your personal or financial information. Your financial information is not made public merely because you create a Vula Finance account.

Where the platform supports sharing with mentors, funders or programme organisations, sharing is controlled through the permissions available to the business owner. Depending on the permissions granted, this may include your business profile, performance information, financial statements, transactions, documents, funding information, goals, impact information or compliance information.

We may also share information with service providers that help us operate Vula Finance, such as hosting, authentication, file storage, security, analytics or AI-processing infrastructure. Such providers may process information only as necessary to provide their services to us and subject to applicable contractual, security and legal requirements.

We may disclose information where required by law, court order, lawful regulatory request, or where reasonably necessary to protect the rights, security or property of Vula Finance, Tswelopele or our users.

7. AI-assisted features

Some Vula Finance features use AI-assisted processing, including receipt/transaction extraction, business-description improvement, financial questions and analytics. When you use these features, the information needed to perform the requested function may be processed by the AI services used by the platform infrastructure.

AI-generated outputs are based on the information available to the feature and may contain errors. You remain responsible for reviewing and confirming financial records before relying on them.

8. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, loss or misuse. These measures include authenticated access, role-based permissions and secure transmission mechanisms provided by the platform infrastructure. No internet-based service can guarantee absolute security.

9. Data retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide Vula Finance, maintain account records, meet legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements and protect the service. When information is no longer required, we aim to securely delete or anonymise it, subject to lawful retention requirements.

Some records may need to be retained for a period after an account is deleted where required for legal, regulatory, security, fraud-prevention or dispute-resolution purposes.

10. Account and data deletion

You can request deletion of your Vula Finance account from the Security section of your profile. You may also request deletion without accessing the app by contacting us at info@tswelopelesynergy.co.za.

When an account deletion request is completed, we delete the account and associated Vula Finance data that we are not legally required to retain. If specific information must be retained, we will limit its use and retain it only for the applicable purpose and period.

11. Your rights

Subject to applicable law, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or information about the processing of your personal information, and to object to certain processing or withdraw consent where consent is the applicable legal basis.

You may contact us using the details above to exercise your rights. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa where applicable.

12. Children

Vula Finance is designed for business owners and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children for the purpose of operating the service.

13. International processing

Some technology and service providers used to operate Vula Finance may process information in countries outside South Africa. Where this occurs, we take reasonable steps to ensure that applicable legal requirements for cross-border processing and appropriate safeguards are considered.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when Vula Finance changes, when our data practices change, or when legal or regulatory requirements change. The updated policy will be published at this URL with a revised effective date.

15. Contact us

Tswelopele Synergy Solutions (Pty) Ltd
Vula Finance Privacy Enquiries
Email: info@tswelopelesynergy.co.za