Important legal terms for using VibeBackers, launching campaigns, and making pledges.
These Terms of Service form a legally binding agreement between you and Independent Media Alliance Ltd, trading as VibeBackers ("VibeBackers", "we", "us", or "our"), a company incorporated in England and Wales, in relation to your access to and use of vibebackers.io and any related services, tools, features, content, and communications we provide (together, the "Platform").
By accessing the Platform, creating an account, launching a campaign, making a pledge, or otherwise using the Platform, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Platform.
VibeBackers operates a reward-based crowdfunding platform focused on software and AI-related projects. We provide the technical infrastructure that allows creators to publish campaigns, backers to support them, and both sides to track progress, milestones, and communications.
VibeBackers is a platform facilitator. We are not acting as your broker, financial adviser, investment adviser, bank, trustee, escrow agent, fiduciary, or legal representative. Except where the Platform rules expressly give us review, moderation, payout, or enforcement powers, arrangements relating to a campaign or reward are between the relevant creator and backer.
VibeBackers is a reward-based platform only. Pledges are not investments, securities, deposits, or loans and do not give backers equity, profit share, or ownership rights in a creator's project or business.
You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into binding contracts to use the Platform. You must provide accurate, current, and complete account information and keep it updated.
You are responsible for safeguarding your login credentials and for activity carried out through your account. We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your account if we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms, created risk for other users, or used the Platform unlawfully or abusively.
If you launch or manage a campaign, you must ensure that your campaign page, reward descriptions, milestone claims, project updates, and communications are accurate, not misleading, and not deceptive by omission.
You represent and warrant that you own, control, or are properly licensed to use the content, software, branding, designs, media, and other materials you submit to the Platform, and that your campaign does not knowingly infringe third-party rights.
Creators are expected to provide clear and honest evidence of progress. Depending on the campaign and milestone, this may include public updates, walkthrough videos, product demonstrations, project media, linked repositories, technical proof, or other materials reasonably requested by the Platform or expected by backers under the campaign presentation.
For software campaigns, GitHub account connection, campaign repository linking, and repository verification are required before launch and remain part of the proof requirements before later payout releases.
By making a pledge, you acknowledge that software and AI development is uncertain and that delays, changes in scope, technical setbacks, or project failure may occur. A pledge is a conditional contribution to fund development. It is not a purchase of goods, not a purchase of digital content, and not a contract for a guaranteed deliverable. You are supporting a project and its development process, not buying a guaranteed finished retail product delivered on a fixed timeline unless a campaign expressly and lawfully states otherwise.
VibeBackers does not guarantee that any campaign will succeed, that any creator will complete a project, or that any reward will be delivered exactly as originally described.
You may cancel a pledge at any time before that pledge is collected, at no cost and without giving a reason. Once collection has taken place, your pledge is treated as committed. Your primary protection as a backer is the milestone tranche model: tranches 2 and 3 are gated by backer-voted milestone approval and remain in escrow until released. Refunds after collection are not available as a matter of course.
Where campaign funds are still pending staged release, those amounts remain in escrow under the Platform rules. VibeBackers may authorise a refund of unreleased escrow only where it determines that the creator has committed material breach (fraud, materially misleading claims, trust and safety violation, or IP infringement) or has abandoned the campaign with no realistic prospect of completion. A refund in those cases is possible, not guaranteed, and is available only for pledges where funds were actually collected and recorded against that backer. Already-released tranches are not clawed back.
Where a refund of unreleased amounts is authorised, the amount returned to each backer is calculated as that backer's net post-fee pledge multiplied by the remaining tranche percentage at the time of cancellation. Payment processing fees originally taken on charge are not re-credited by the payment provider and are not added back.
To the extent that the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 apply to your pledge, by submitting the pledge you expressly request that the Platform begin supplying pledge-related services immediately. Those services include campaign listing, payment authorisation setup, milestone tooling access, and communication workflows. You acknowledge that the right to cancel under those Regulations is lost once those services have been fully supplied, which the Platform considers to occur no later than the moment of charge on campaign success. Nothing in these Terms removes or limits any right that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Nothing in these Terms affects your right to raise a dispute with your card issuer. If you believe a charge is incorrect, please contact support first so we can attempt to resolve the matter directly.
If a chargeback is initiated and upheld by your card issuer, your pledge is treated as cancelled from that point. Any tranche voting rights tied to that pledge are voided and your backer-only campaign access may be revoked. The Platform may share campaign updates, milestone proofs, and relevant backer activity with the card issuer in order to respond to the dispute.
Sustained chargebacks may trigger a trust and safety review or campaign cancellation.
VibeBackers uses third-party payment service providers, including Stripe and related services, to process payments, store payment methods, manage collections, and support creator payout flows. Your use of those services may also be subject to the third party's own terms and policies.
VibeBackers is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Pledges are not investments, deposits, or financial instruments. Backers have no recourse to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service.
VibeBackers does not hold, pool, or commingle backer funds. All payments are processed and held exclusively by Stripe and its related payment service providers. VibeBackers never has custody of backer funds.
Where stated on the Platform, campaigns operate on an all-or-nothing basis. Backers may be asked to authorise payment details or payment method setup in advance, but actual collection is governed by the Platform's campaign success rules and payment flow.
Successful campaigns do not automatically entitle creators to the full campaign amount at once. Creator payouts are released in stages and may depend on milestone review, progress evidence, backer approval thresholds, verification requirements, trust and safety review, and the Platform's payout rules.
Platform fees and payment processing fees will be disclosed on the Platform or at the relevant point in the creator or backer journey.
Once a campaign has reached the stage where ongoing funded development is expected, creators are required to continue communicating with backers through meaningful public updates on the Platform.
VibeBackers currently operates a staged inactivity workflow. If meaningful updates are not posted, the Platform may issue a first reminder at around day 7, a second reminder at around day 14, a final warning at around day 19, and may freeze future payout releases and escalate the campaign to admin review at around day 21.
If a creator becomes inactive or fails to provide required progress evidence, VibeBackers may resume the campaign, keep future releases paused, or cancel the campaign for inactivity. Inactivity triggers cancellation and a separate admin decision about whether to authorise a refund of captured, unreleased escrow. It does not automatically trigger a refund. Already released tranches are not clawed back.
VibeBackers may monitor whether updates and milestone materials appear materially meaningful for Platform policy purposes, but it does not guarantee the technical accuracy, completeness, or commercial success of any project. Backers may report updates or milestone proof they believe are intentionally misleading or designed only to reset the communication timer without providing meaningful progress.
Creators may submit text, media, links, HTML, and campaign presentation content through tools such as the Vibe Canvas. You remain responsible for the content you submit.
To reduce security risk, VibeBackers may sanitise, limit, rewrite, reject, or remove HTML, embeds, scripts, styles, links, or other content submitted to the Platform. You must not attempt to upload or render malicious code, tracking payloads, hidden scripts, harmful redirects, unauthorised embeds, or other material that creates security, privacy, or trust risk for users.
The Platform may contain links to third-party sites, demos, repositories, videos, or creator-controlled pages. We are not responsible for third-party content, availability, or security practices.
You must not:
We may investigate suspected misuse and take action including content removal, payout holds, account suspension, campaign cancellation, notification to affected users, or referral to payment providers or law enforcement where appropriate.
VibeBackers may review campaigns, milestones, disputes, inactivity cases, reports, and safety issues, and may approve, reject, pause, escalate, cancel, or otherwise act on Platform activity in line with these Terms and our internal rules.
Creators and backers are encouraged to communicate through the Platform where possible. Where a milestone disagreement, inactivity case, or trust and safety report is formally raised through the Platform, VibeBackers will review the matter and aim to record an outcome within 10 business days, although more complex cases may take longer where additional evidence or payment-provider input is required. Once a refund is authorised, settlement typically reaches the backer's payment method within 5 to 10 business days via the payment provider, depending on the card issuer.
VibeBackers does not guarantee a particular outcome for any dispute, but it will document the review decision it reaches, which may include no action, a request for more evidence, a pause on future releases, campaign cancellation, or another enforcement step allowed by these Terms and the Platform rules.
Where VibeBackers alleges that a creator has committed material breach or has abandoned a campaign, the Platform will:
Certain categories of breach are non-remediable and may result in immediate termination without a 7-day response window. These include fraud, IP infringement, and trust and safety violations such as harassment or illegal content.
Where a backer raises a chargeback with their card issuer in relation to a pledge collected through the Platform, the creator agrees to assist VibeBackers with evidence and documentation on request. Chargeback amounts and any associated dispute fees may be recovered from the creator under these Terms. Sustained chargebacks may trigger a trust and safety review or campaign cancellation.
The Platform, including our branding, interface, software, design, and underlying systems, belongs to VibeBackers or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property law.
By submitting content to the Platform, you grant VibeBackers a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, display, reproduce, process, adapt for formatting/security/moderation purposes, and use that content as needed to operate, secure, improve, and promote the Platform.
The Platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We do not promise uninterrupted availability, error-free operation, or that the Platform will always be free from bugs, delays, or vulnerabilities.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under the laws of England and Wales, including liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, death, or personal injury caused by negligence.
Subject to that, and to the extent permitted by law, VibeBackers will not be liable for indirect or consequential losses, including loss of profit, loss of business, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill, or reputational loss.
Subject to that, VibeBackers' total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Platform or these Terms shall not exceed the greater of £100 or the total amount of platform fees paid by or attributable to the relevant user in the 6 months before the event giving rise to the claim.
Nothing in these Terms is intended to remove or reduce any mandatory rights you may have under applicable law.
To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless VibeBackers, its officers, employees, contractors, and affiliates from losses, liabilities, claims, damages, and reasonable costs arising out of your breach of these Terms, your unlawful use of the Platform, your infringement of third-party rights, or your campaign, content, rewards, or representations as a creator.
We may update these Terms from time to time. Where appropriate, we will post the updated version on the Platform and update the effective date. Your continued use of the Platform after updated Terms take effect means you accept them.
These Terms and any non-contractual disputes or claims arising out of or in connection with them are governed by the laws of England and Wales.
The courts of England and Wales shall have jurisdiction, except where applicable consumer law gives you the right to bring proceedings in another relevant jurisdiction.
If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us through the contact details published on the Platform.
Registered office: 9 Sherbourne Gardens, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, SS2 6QD.
Last updated: April 2026.