Terms of Service

Last updated: 16 May 2026  ·  Effective: 16 May 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding contract between you and Hastati Ventures LLC, a limited liability company organised under the laws of the State of Arizona, United States of America (Arizona Corporation Commission file number 23890386), with principal place of business at 11390 East Via Linda, Suite 101, Scottsdale, AZ 85259, USA ("The Punt", "we", "us", "our"). They govern your access to and use of the The Punt mobile application, website, APIs and related services (together, the "Service"). By creating an account, signing in or otherwise using the Service you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy (which is incorporated by reference). If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

The Service is offered by an Arizona-based US company to a closed community of users associated with the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. We have voluntarily agreed to apply the consumer protections of England & Wales (and English jurisdiction — see section 17) to your use of the Service so that your statutory rights as a UK consumer are not displaced by our US base.

1. About us and the Service

The Punt is a private social network and peer-to-peer marketplace for verified members of the University of Cambridge. The Service includes posts, comments, direct messages, community spaces, an event aggregator, and a marketplace with an optional escrow flow operated through Stripe Connect. The Service is operated by Hastati Ventures LLC, a US company, and is offered to and used predominantly by UK-based users (Cambridge students, alumni, fellows and staff).

The Punt is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or operated on behalf of the University of Cambridge, any of its colleges, the Cambridge Students' Union, or any other University-related body. References to the University, colleges, societies or events are descriptive only.

2. Eligibility, account and verification

• You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service. You must not register on behalf of anyone else.
• You must be a current student, alumnus, fellow or staff member of the University of Cambridge with a valid @cam.ac.uk or @jbs.cam.ac.uk email address. Verification is performed by sending a one-time code to your email; you must keep that email address active. We may revoke access if you cease to hold a valid Cambridge address.
• One person, one account. Accounts are personal and non-transferable. You may not sell, rent, share or transfer your account.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify info@hastati.ventures immediately if you suspect unauthorised access.
• You must give accurate information and keep it up to date. We may suspend accounts that we reasonably believe contain false or misleading information.

3. Acceptable use and prohibited content

You agree not to use the Service to do, post, share, transmit or facilitate any of the following:

• anything illegal under the laws of England and Wales or any jurisdiction from which you access the Service, including (without limitation) the Online Safety Act 2023, the Equality Act 2010, the Fraud Act 2006, the Computer Misuse Act 1990, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971;
• content that is defamatory, threatening, harassing, bullying, hateful, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or that incites violence, terrorism or self-harm;
• child sexual abuse material (CSAM) of any kind, content sexualising minors, or any content depicting non-consensual sexual activity;
• intimate images of any person shared without their consent ("revenge porn"), images obtained by hidden recording, doxxing, or content disclosing private personal data of others without lawful basis;
• impersonation of any person, organisation, college or society, or misrepresentation of your identity, affiliation, age or qualifications;
• content that infringes copyright, trade marks, database rights, design rights, moral rights, rights of publicity or personality, or any other third-party right;
• spam, chain messages, pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing, phishing, malware, viruses, ransomware, or any code intended to disrupt the Service or other users' devices;
• scraping, crawling, indexing, mass-downloading, reverse-engineering, decompiling or systematically extracting data from the Service except as expressly permitted by us in writing;
• circumventing rate limits, security controls, the Cambridge-email gate or any moderation action; using bots, scripts or automated tools to interact with the Service without our permission;
• using the Service to facilitate gambling, prostitution, money laundering, sanctions evasion, or any activity prohibited under UK financial-crime laws;
• listing or transferring any of the following on the marketplace: weapons (including knives, BB guns and offensive weapons), ammunition, controlled drugs, prescription-only medicines (POMs), pharmacy-only medicines (P), tobacco or vapes to under-18s, alcohol to under-18s, alcohol on a commercial basis without the necessary licence, stolen goods, counterfeit goods, fake or altered identification documents, exam answers, coursework, completed essays or any product designed to facilitate academic misconduct, animals, human remains or biological samples, hazardous materials, radioactive materials, recalled products, items subject to UK or international sanctions, items requiring a regulated dealer to sell, NFTs, cryptocurrency or other digital assets, anything you do not legally own or have the right to sell, event tickets above face value where the original ticket terms prohibit resale at a profit, and any ticket for which resale would breach the terms imposed by the original event organiser, venue or licensing authority;
• conduct that breaches the rules of the University of Cambridge, your college, or any society of which you are a member, where such conduct could reasonably be expected to bring The Punt into disrepute.

We have no obligation to monitor User Content but we reserve the right to remove content, restrict features, suspend or terminate accounts, refuse service, and report users to the police, the University, payment partners, regulators or other authorities, at our reasonable discretion and without liability.

Operator-posted community content. To keep the open forum active during our early-stage launch in Cambridge, we routinely post short ambient observations and discussion prompts about Cambridge life (e.g. queues, weather, libraries, formal-hall menus, study habits) from operator-controlled accounts, including an account named "The Punt". These posts are general in nature, do not name or identify any individual, and are not intended to be read as factual reporting on specific people, transactions or events. They run through the same automated content checks as user-submitted posts. We may discontinue, scale back or change this practice at any time.

Automated screening. To help enforce these Terms and meet our obligations under the Online Safety Act 2023 and Apple's App Store guidelines, posts, comments, marketplace listings, chat messages and uploaded images are submitted to an AI content-moderation service (currently OpenAI's omni-moderation-latest API) at the point of submission. Submissions that the system flags as likely to violate these Terms (for example sexual content involving minors, threats, hate speech, graphic violence or self-harm content) may be blocked without prior notice. The moderation service is not perfect: it may occasionally allow content through that we would otherwise block (in which case we rely on user reports and human review under section 3 above), and it may occasionally flag content that turns out to be acceptable. If the moderation service is temporarily unavailable, individual submissions may still be allowed through and reviewed later; we may also block submissions on outage on routes where the risk of harm is highest. If you believe a moderation decision was wrong, contact us at info@hastati.ventures for human review. See our Privacy Policy for details on how this processing works and which sub-processors are involved.

4. User Content and the licence you grant us

"User Content" means anything you upload, post, send, transmit or make available through the Service, including text, images, audio, video, links, listings, comments and direct messages. You retain all rights you have in your User Content.

You grant Hastati Ventures LLC a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid-up, sublicensable and transferable licence to host, store, cache, reproduce, publish, display, perform, distribute, modify (e.g. resize/transcode for delivery), translate, create derivative works of and otherwise use your User Content for the limited purposes of (a) operating, providing, securing and improving the Service, (b) promoting the Service in our own marketing materials, and (c) complying with legal obligations or lawful requests. This licence is perpetual to the extent reasonably necessary to support backups, audit logs, and content already shared with other users; otherwise it ends when you delete the content or your account.

You represent and warrant that you own or have all necessary rights and consents to grant this licence and that your User Content does not breach these Terms or any law.

5. Reporting illegal or harmful content

We take our duties under the Online Safety Act 2023 seriously. If you encounter content or behaviour on the Service that you believe is illegal, harmful, infringes your rights or breaches these Terms, please report it via the in-app report tools or by emailing info@hastati.ventures with the URL/screenshot, the user concerned and a description of the issue. We will review reports promptly and take appropriate action, which may include removing content, warning, suspending or banning users, and (for serious matters) referring the report to the police, the Internet Watch Foundation or other relevant bodies. Misuse of the reporting system, including knowingly false reports, is itself a breach of these Terms.

6. Marketplace, escrow and payments

Hastati Ventures LLC is not a party to any transaction between buyers and sellers on the marketplace. We are a neutral facilitator providing tools to help users connect, communicate and (optionally) move money safely. Each transaction is a contract directly between the buyer and the seller. We do not own, sell, manufacture, deliver, inspect, warrant or guarantee any item or ticket listed on the Service.

6.1 Sellers

• You are responsible for the accuracy of your listings and for honouring them. You warrant that you have the legal right to sell the item or ticket, that it is as described, and that the sale does not breach any third-party terms (including event-organiser terms or ticket-resale conditions).
• You are responsible for any taxes (including VAT and income tax), regulatory permissions, licences and consumer-law obligations that apply to your sales. We do not provide tax advice. If you trade frequently you may have additional obligations under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and HMRC reporting rules.
• To receive funds via escrow you must complete onboarding with our payment partner Stripe and accept the Stripe Connected Account Agreement. We may withhold or reverse payouts if a transaction is suspected of being fraudulent, in breach of these Terms, or subject to a chargeback.
• Net payout: the amount you receive may be less than the headline listing price. Funds are held by our payment partner in our platform settlement currency (USD) and transferred to your connected account in your payout currency (typically GBP). The amount transferred to you is calculated as your pro-rata share of the buyer's actual settled payment after Stripe's processing fees and any cross-currency exchange. You also bear any payout-side conversion or banking fees Stripe charges your account. By using the escrow flow, you acknowledge and accept this currency-conversion and payment-processing risk.

6.2 Buyers

• You are responsible for inspecting listings, asking questions before purchase, and confirming receipt within the auto-release window.
• For ticket purchases, you are responsible for confirming the ticket is valid, transferable, in your name where required, and that resale is permitted by the event organiser.
• If you do not confirm or open a dispute within 48 hours of the seller marking the item as transferred, funds are automatically released to the seller. You should always confirm in person where possible.

6.3 How escrow works

When "Buy with The Punt" is used, the buyer is charged the headline listing price shown on the listing. That headline price is inclusive of our platform service fee — sellers enter the amount they wish to receive when creating the listing, and we calculate and add our fee on top so that the price the buyer sees is the total they will pay (no fees are added later at checkout). Both the seller's net amount and the platform fee are itemised on the seller's create-listing screen and on the buyer's checkout receipt. The funds are processed by Stripe and held by the platform pending fulfilment. The seller marks the item as transferred (uploading proof where applicable). The buyer then either (i) confirms receipt, in which case funds are released immediately to the seller's connected account, or (ii) opens a dispute within 48 hours, which freezes the auto-release timer pending review. If neither happens within 48 hours, funds auto-release. We may, at our discretion, hold funds for longer in cases of suspected fraud or active dispute.

6.4 Disputes, refunds and chargebacks

• If a buyer raises a dispute within the auto-release window, the platform places an indefinite hold on the escrowed funds (the auto-release timer is frozen). The hold remains in place until either the buyer and seller agree on resolution, the buyer subsequently confirms receipt, the dispute is withdrawn, or we reach a resolution decision.
• We will attempt to mediate disputes between buyers and sellers in good faith. Our role is that of a neutral facilitator, not a binding arbitrator; we have no obligation to take sides, to investigate beyond what we reasonably can, or to issue refunds. Resolution may take time and is not guaranteed.
• Where we decide in our reasonable discretion to release held funds, we may release them to the seller, refund some or all of them to the buyer, or split them, having regard to the available evidence (including transfer proofs, message history and any third-party verification).
• The most reliable protection for buyers is to confirm receipt only after physically inspecting the item or successfully redeeming the ticket. Where you have a payment-card protection right (e.g. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 for purchases £100–£30,000 on a UK credit card), that right is against your card issuer and we do not displace or replace it.
• If you initiate a chargeback through your card issuer, you agree to (a) cooperate fully with any Stripe or our investigation, (b) reimburse us for any chargeback fees, fines or losses we incur, and (c) accept that we may suspend your account pending resolution.
• Funds held in escrow are not deposits, are not interest-bearing, are not guaranteed by any deposit-protection scheme (including the FSCS), and may be lost in the event of insolvency of our payment partners. We are not authorised by the FCA as a payment service provider; payment services are provided by Stripe.

6.5 Marketplace warranties

To the extent permitted by law, we make no warranty as to the existence, quality, safety, legality, authenticity or condition of any item or ticket listed; the truth or accuracy of any listing; the ability of sellers to sell or buyers to pay; or that any transaction will complete.

7. Tickets, events and third-party content

The Service aggregates publicly available event listings and other information from third-party sources (including Cambridge SU, Cambridge Union, Camdram, Cambridge Live, FIXR and Eventbrite). We do not control, endorse or guarantee these events, organisers or third-party sites. External links open the third party's own site, governed by that site's terms and policies. We are not responsible for the accuracy, availability, pricing or safety of any third-party event or content.

8. Fees, taxes and refunds

Use of the Service is currently free for buyers and sellers except for: (a) the platform service fee on escrowed marketplace purchases (currently calculated to be 7% of the buyer-facing total, with a minimum of £0.30 per transaction; on very low-priced listings the £0.30 minimum may produce an effective rate above 7%), which is included in the headline listing price shown to the buyer; and (b) any payment-processing or currency-conversion costs imposed by your card issuer or our payment partners. The seller's net amount and the included platform fee are itemised at both listing-creation time (for sellers) and checkout (for buyers) — there are no hidden fees added at checkout. We may change fees or introduce new fees at any time on at least 14 days' prior notice; changes do not apply to transactions already in progress. Service fees are non-refundable except where required by law or where we determine in our discretion that a refund is appropriate (for example, in proven cases of seller fraud).

You are solely responsible for any taxes (including income tax, VAT, sales tax) that arise from your use of the Service, including from sales you make.

9. Suspension, termination and account closure

• You may close your account at any time from in-app settings or by emailing info@hastati.ventures.
• We may suspend or terminate your account, with or without notice, if (i) you breach these Terms or applicable law, (ii) we are required to do so by a court, regulator, payment partner or other competent authority, (iii) we reasonably believe doing so is necessary to protect the Service, other users or third parties from harm, fraud or risk, or (iv) we discontinue the Service.
• On termination, your licence to use the Service ends immediately. Sections 4 (last paragraph), 6 (in respect of completed or in-flight transactions), 8, 10–14, 17 and 18 survive.
• Suspension or termination of your account does not entitle you to any refund of service fees already paid.

10. Intellectual property

The Service and all related software, source code, designs, logos, trade marks (including "The Punt"), graphics, copy and content (other than User Content) are owned by Hastati Ventures LLC or its licensors and are protected by intellectual-property and other laws. We grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service for its intended purpose. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

11. DMCA / IP infringement notices

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright or other intellectual-property right, please send a written notice to info@hastati.ventures including: (a) your name, address, telephone number and email; (b) a description of the work or right allegedly infringed; (c) the URL or location of the infringing content; (d) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorised; (e) a statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and that you are the rights-holder or authorised to act on their behalf; and (f) your physical or electronic signature. We will respond to valid notices and may remove content and/or terminate repeat infringers' accounts.

12. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

• The Service is provided on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, or that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free.
• We make no warranty as to the conduct or content of other users, the accuracy of event listings, the success of any transaction, or that any user is who they claim to be.
• We do not provide legal, financial, tax or medical advice. Anything you read on the Service is not such advice.
• Use of the Service is at your sole risk. You are responsible for maintaining backups of any User Content you wish to retain.

13. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence; (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; (c) breach of the implied terms as to title under section 12 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 or section 17 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (where applicable); (d) any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under English law.

Subject to that, to the fullest extent permitted by law:

• We will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, exemplary or consequential loss or damage; loss of profits, revenue, contracts, business, anticipated savings, opportunity, goodwill, reputation or data; or for any loss arising from interactions with other users (online or offline), failed transactions, ticket invalidity, missed events, or content posted by other users.
• We will not be liable for any loss caused by events beyond our reasonable control (see section 18.5).
• Our total aggregate liability to you arising out of or in connection with the Service or these Terms in any rolling 12-month period is limited to the greater of (i) £100 (one hundred pounds sterling), or (ii) the total platform service fees actually paid by you to us in that 12-month period.

The above limitations apply whether the claim arises in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, and even if we have been advised of the possibility of such loss.

14. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Hastati Ventures LLC and its directors, officers, employees, contractors, agents and affiliates from and against any and all claims, demands, actions, proceedings, losses, liabilities, damages, fines, penalties, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with: (a) your User Content; (b) your use or misuse of the Service; (c) your breach of these Terms or any law; (d) your transactions with other users; or (e) your infringement of any third-party right. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which case you will cooperate with our defence.

15. Consumer rights (where applicable)

If you are a consumer in the United Kingdom, nothing in these Terms affects your statutory rights, including under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The Punt itself is a digital service provided to you free of charge (other than service fees on optional escrow purchases); your statutory rights against individual sellers on the marketplace are against those sellers, not against us. Where a seller is acting as a trader (rather than a consumer), the buyer may have additional consumer rights against the seller — please contact the seller directly in the first instance.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If a change is material we will notify you in-app and/or by email at least 14 days before it takes effect. Non-material changes (such as clarifications, typo fixes or contact-detail updates) take effect when posted. If you do not agree to a change, you must stop using the Service before the change takes effect; continued use after that date constitutes acceptance.

17. Governing law, jurisdiction and disputes

Although Hastati Ventures LLC is organised in Arizona, USA, because the Service is targeted at UK-resident users we have agreed that these Terms and any non-contractual obligations arising out of or in connection with them are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Subject to the next sentence, the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service, and you and we both submit to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. If you are a consumer resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may bring proceedings in your local courts; if you are a consumer resident outside the UK, you may have the right to bring proceedings in your country of residence under the mandatory consumer laws of that country.

Before commencing court proceedings, please contact info@hastati.ventures so we have an opportunity to resolve the matter informally. The European Commission's online dispute resolution platform is available at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/; we are not currently signed up to any specific ADR provider.

Class-action and jury-trial waiver (US users only): if you are a US resident, to the maximum extent permitted by US federal and Arizona state law, you and we each waive any right to a trial by jury and any right to participate in a class action, collective action, or representative action against the other. This paragraph does not apply to UK or other non-US residents.

18. General terms

18.1 Entire agreement

These Terms (together with the Privacy Policy and any community guidelines or product-specific terms we publish) form the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreement.

18.2 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect, and the unenforceable provision will be deemed modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable while preserving the original intent.

18.3 No waiver

Our failure to enforce any right or provision is not a waiver of that right or provision. No waiver is effective unless in writing.

18.4 Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms or any rights under them without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms or any of our rights and obligations to any affiliate, successor in interest, or acquirer of our business or assets, without your consent.

18.5 Force majeure

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performance to the extent caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, civil disturbance, strikes, internet or telecommunications failures, the acts of any government or regulator, public-health emergencies, or failures of any third-party service or infrastructure.

18.6 No third-party beneficiaries

A person who is not a party to these Terms has no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce them, except that Hastati Ventures LLC's affiliates, directors and officers may rely on section 14 (Indemnity).

18.7 Notices

Notices to us must be in writing to info@hastati.ventures (or to our registered office). We may give notice to you in-app, by email to your account address, or by posting to the Service.

18.8 Relationship of the parties

Nothing in these Terms creates any partnership, joint venture, agency, employment or fiduciary relationship between you and us.

18.9 Export and sanctions

You must comply with all applicable trade and sanctions laws. You represent that you are not located in, ordinarily resident in, or organised under the laws of, a country subject to UK or EU comprehensive sanctions, and that you are not on any sanctions list.

18.10 App store terms

If you access the Service through Apple's App Store or Google Play, you agree to comply with the applicable store terms, which apply in addition to (and, to the limited extent of conflict, prevail over) these Terms in respect of your use of the relevant store.

19. Contact

Hastati Ventures LLC (Arizona file number 23890386)
11390 East Via Linda, Suite 101, Scottsdale, AZ 85259, USA
General support: info@hastati.ventures
Legal & IP notices: info@hastati.ventures
Privacy / data requests: info@hastati.ventures

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