Groundwork

Last updated 27 October 2026

Privacy

Groundwork connects Ethiopian businesses with investors and customers. To do that safely we collect some personal information, including identity documents from business owners. This page explains what we collect, why, who can see it and what you can ask us to do with it.

What we collect

  • Account details: your name, email address, password (stored only as a secure hash), phone number if you add one, and whether you joined as a business, investor or customer.
  • Investor profile: your investment range, sectors of interest, the type of investor you are, your fund or company, the country you live in, whether you are part of the Ethiopian diaspora, and a short bio if you write one.
  • Business listing: what you publish about your business, such as its description, funding ask, use of funds, products, photos and team.
  • Verification details: your national ID number, business license number and expiry, TIN and VAT number, and the documents you upload (national ID, business license, registration, TIN and VAT certificates).
  • Messages and calls: the messages you send through Groundwork, and a record of calls (who called, when and for how long). We do not record the content of calls.
  • Activity: profile views, saved businesses and expressions of interest, which owners see as statistics on their dashboard.
  • Technical information: a sign-in cookie that keeps you signed in, and the basic logs every web server keeps, such as IP addresses and the time of requests. Your theme and language choices are stored only in your browser.

Why we use it

  • To run your account and show your listing or profile to the right members.
  • To verify that businesses are real, legally registered and owned by the person who listed them.
  • To let members contact each other, and to send you emails about your account, such as verification links, password resets and listing decisions.
  • To keep Groundwork safe: preventing fraud and abuse, and investigating reports.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.

Who can see what

  • Other members see what you publish: a business listing, or an investor's name, organisation, sectors and range when they contact a business. Investors listed in the International directory are shown with their name, country, organisation and bio.
  • Your email address and phone number are never shown on a listing or in the directory. They are only shared if you share them in a conversation.
  • Verification documents are seen only by our review team. They are stored apart from public files and are never shown on a profile. Visitors only see which checks passed. Your national ID number is stored encrypted, and only its last four digits are ever displayed, to you and to reviewers.
  • Service providers process data for us: our hosting provider, the email service that sends our emails, and, when it is connected, the national ID verification service that checks an ID number against the issuing authority. They may only use it to provide their service to us.
  • Authorities may receive information where Ethiopian law requires it.

How long we keep it

We keep your account and listing while your account is open. Verification documents are kept while your listing exists and for as long as we need them to handle disputes or meet legal obligations. When you ask us to close your account, we delete or anonymise its personal information, except what we must keep by law.

Security

Connections to Groundwork are encrypted. Passwords are hashed, national ID numbers are encrypted, and verification documents can only be opened by the owner and the review team, with every reviewer access logged. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong password that you don't use anywhere else.

Your choices

  • Update your name, phone and investor profile at any time from Profile and settings.
  • Leave the International directory by unticking it in your investment profile.
  • Sign out of other devices, or change your password, from Profile and settings.
  • Ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, or to close your account and delete it, by writing to jirehgrp.com.

Changes

If we change how we use personal information, we will update this page and tell members by email or on the site before the change takes effect.

Contact

Groundwork is developed and run by JIREHGRP in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Questions about privacy: jirehgrp.com.