BEE for Startups Program Terms

1. Eligibility

• Default eligibility: AI-native startup founded within the last 5 years, with $0 – $25M total raised and 1 – 100 employees, building on Bee or seriously evaluating Bee for a production workload.
• We make exceptions where it's clearly the right call (later-stage spin-outs, agentic-AI research labs, strategic mid-market customers). Apply anyway and explain why; eligibility is reviewed on the merits, not just the rubric.
• We reserve the right to modify eligibility criteria or reject any application without providing specific reasons.

2. Credits

• Credit awards run from $1,000 (pre-seed / pre-launch) to $25,000 (Series A building on Hive / Swarm / Enclave). Pre-launch and pre-seed awards are scaled toward Cell / Brood / Comb usage; Hive / Swarm / Enclave awards require demonstrable AI workload depth.
• Awards are USD-denominated, applied to the Bee credit ledger, and burn down against any Bee tier exactly like cash credits — no separate sandbox.
• Credits expire 12 months from the grant date unless otherwise stated in the acceptance email. Unused credits at expiry are forfeit.
• Credits cannot be redeemed for cash, transferred between accounts, or applied retroactively to invoices issued before the grant.
• We may claw back unused credit balances if the recipient materially breaches these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy. We will give 14 days' written notice and an opportunity to cure where the breach is curable.

3. Architecture review

One 60-minute call with a Bee engineer covering tier choice, RAG pipeline, prompt-injection guard placement, post-quantum boundary, and any tier-specific gotchas. Additional calls are available on a best-effort basis once the initial review confirms there is a real workload behind the application.

4. Featured listing on /platform

Accepted companies may opt in to a logo + one-line listing on bee.cuilabs.io/platform on launch. Optional case study at 90 days in production, jointly authored. Listings are at our editorial discretion; we may decline or remove a listing at any time, including (without limitation) where the company exits, materially changes use-case, or violates the Acceptable Use Policy.

5. Compliance head-start

We provide pre-built Order Form templates, our sub-processor list, security questionnaire answers, and the DPA. These materials are provided as-is for your reference; they are not legal advice and do not create a customer relationship between us and your downstream prospects.

6. Routing-telemetry opt-in (optional)

• You may optionally opt in to share anonymised routing telemetry — model picked, time-to-first-token, success/error class, prompt/response length. Prompt and response content does NOT leave your tenant under this opt-in; it remains Customer Data under the standard Privacy Policy and DPA.
• Telemetry opt-in is not a precondition of acceptance, is revocable at any time via the privacy address, and is subject to the same retention and deletion rights as other personal data we hold under the Privacy Policy.
• We use shared telemetry to improve Bee's routing layer (model choice, fallback chain, latency budgets). We do not use it to train base model weights.

7. Founder availability

Accepted companies will nominate a founder or co-founder as the primary contact for Program purposes. We expect a maximum 5-business-day response cadence on Program-relevant matters (architecture-review scheduling, security questionnaire feedback). Repeated unresponsiveness may result in withdrawal of unused benefits.

8. What you agree to

• Use Bee in compliance with the Terms of Service and the Acceptable Use Policy. Restricted-domain (Tier-3) workloads remain gated regardless of Program participation.
• Not transfer, sub-license, or assign Program benefits — credits and architecture-review entitlements are tied to the accepted entity.
• Provide accurate information on the application. Material misrepresentation (overstated stage, misrepresented use-case, undisclosed acquisition) is grounds for immediate termination and clawback of unused credits.
• Where you opt into a /platform listing, give us 30 days' notice if you decide to wind down or pivot away from Bee so we can update or remove the listing.

9. Confidentiality

Information shared in connection with the Program (roadmap previews, pricing, joint-customer identities) is confidential. Each party will protect the other's confidential information using at least the care it uses for its own and never less than reasonable care. Confidentiality survives termination by 3 years; trade secrets indefinitely.

10. Term and termination

• The Program runs on a rolling basis with no fixed term. Either party may terminate participation at any time, for any reason, on 30 days' written notice — earlier where required by law or for breach.
• Termination ends future credit grants and benefits. Unused credit balances at termination expire on the schedule in the acceptance email (typically 30 days post-termination), unless termination is for material breach in which case unused credits are forfeit immediately.

11. No warranty, no agency

• Participation does not make either party an agent, partner (in the legal-entity sense), joint venturer, or franchisee of the other. Neither party may bind the other.
• Bee is provided under the standard Terms of Service. The Program does not modify those terms or create any additional warranty.

12. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither party will be liable to the other for indirect, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from the Program. Our aggregate liability arising from the Program is capped at the lesser of (a) the credits granted to the recipient under the Program in the 12 months preceding the event, or (b) USD 5,000.

13. Governing law and venue

• These Terms are governed by the laws of Singapore, without regard to conflicts-of-law principles.
• Disputes that cannot be resolved through good-faith negotiation will be referred to and finally resolved by arbitration administered by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) under its rules in force at the time. Seat: Singapore. Language: English.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. Material changes will be announced via the changelog and an email to the contact on the application with at least 30 days' notice. Continued participation after the effective date constitutes acceptance.