Terms of Service

This Terms of Service Agreement (the “Agreement”) is a binding contract between you (“you” or “User”) and STRETTCH CLOUD Limited (“Strettch Cloud,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). This Agreement governs your access to and use of the Strettch Cloud services (the “Services”).

By accessing or using our Services, you agree that you have read, understood, and accepted this Agreement, our Privacy Notice, and our Acceptable Use Policy, which is incorporated by reference into this Agreement.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICES.

1. Account Eligibility and Registration

1.1. Eligibility

To use the Services, you must be at least eighteen (18) years of age and have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract. By creating an account, you represent and warrant that you meet these requirements.

1.2. Account Creation

You must create an account to access the Services, using either Google or GitHub for authentication. You are responsible for all activities that occur under your account and within any teams you own or are a member of.

1.3. Account Security

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials. Strettch Cloud is not responsible for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect your account.

1.4. Team Accounts

All Services on the Strettch Cloud platform are provisioned and billed on a "Team" basis. Even an individual user operates within a team of one. The user who creates a team is the owner and is responsible for all activity, billing, and user management associated with that team.

2. Fees, Billing, and Payment

2.1. Payment Method Verification

As a prerequisite for your team to create its first resource (such as a virtual machine), you must add a valid payment method to your account. We require an active and verifiable credit or debit card on file before you can provision any Services. To validate your card, a small, temporary authorization hold may be placed on it, which is not a charge and will be released automatically.

2.2. Accepted Payment Methods

We accept payments through the following methods:

1. Credit and Debit Cards: We accept major cards, including Visa and Mastercard. All card payments are securely processed through our partner, IremboPay.
2. Mobile Money: Payments can be made via MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money. You are responsible for maintaining an active payment method on file for your team and ensuring sufficient funds are available to cover your invoices.

2.3. Billing and Invoicing

1. Billing Cycle: Our billing period (the "Billing Cycle") begins on the first day of each month and ends on the last day of the same month.
2. Invoicing: An invoice detailing your team's usage and the total amount due for that Billing Cycle will be generated after the last day of each month (the "Invoice Date").
3. Payment Status: On the 1st of each month, your team's payment status is updated based on your account balance. There are three possible statuses:
   • Good Standing: Your account balance is positive or zero, and you have full access to all services
   • Past Due: Your account balance is negative, meaning you have unpaid charges
   • Suspended: Your account has remained in Past Due status and is subject to service restrictions
4. Payment Enforcement: While billing occurs monthly, payment enforcement follows a predictable 28-day cycle. This ensures consistent enforcement timelines that work the same way every month, regardless of varying month lengths.
5. Taxes: All prices for the Services are inclusive of Value Added Tax (VAT).

2.4. Pricing Changes

We may change our prices by giving you at least one (1) month's notice before the new prices become effective. Notice will be provided in accordance with Section 14.2.

2.5. Refund Policy

If you close your account and delete all associated teams, you may request a refund of your remaining topped-up balance. The refund is calculated as follows:

1. Consumed services are not refundable. Because Strettch Cloud invoices at the end of each Billing Cycle for services already consumed, any amount that has been invoiced is considered payment for services rendered and is not eligible for refund.
2. Credit clawback. On the Strettch Cloud platform, Credits are consumed before your funded balance. This means that if you received Credits — whether through the referral programme, a long-term commitment arrangement, or any other reason — those Credits may have covered part or all of your invoiced usage, leaving your funded balance partially or fully intact. If you request a refund, the value of all Credits that were applied to your invoices will be deducted from your remaining funded balance. This ensures that you cannot receive free service by consuming Credits and then reclaiming the funded balance those Credits protected. Credits themselves have no cash value and are never refunded.
3. Refundable amount. The refundable amount is your remaining funded balance minus the value of any Credits consumed against your invoices.
4. Payment method. Refunds are processed exclusively via bank transfer to ensure consistency and guarantee of delivery. You must provide valid bank account details when submitting your refund request.
5. Timeline. Refunds will be processed within thirty (30) calendar days of receiving your complete refund request, including valid bank details. Any fees or charges incurred in processing the bank transfer shall be covered by you.
6. Fraud and abuse safeguard. Strettch Cloud reserves the right to withhold, delay, or deny a refund if it determines, in its sole discretion, that the account has been involved in fraudulent activity, abuse of the refund process, abuse of the Credits or referral programme, or any violation of the Acceptable Use Policy (Section 5). In such cases, Strettch Cloud may also pursue recovery of any losses incurred as a result of such conduct.

3. Credits

3.1. What Credits Are

Strettch Cloud may, at its sole discretion, issue credits ("Credits") to team accounts. Credits are non-monetary incentives that reduce your team's outstanding usage charges. They are not legal tender, have no cash value, and are not a deposit or pre-payment of any kind.

3.2. How Credits Are Issued

Credits are issued by Strettch Cloud for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to: participation in the referral programme, refunds arising from service incidents or billing errors, promotional campaigns, partnership agreements, and goodwill adjustments. Credits cannot be purchased or transferred between accounts.

3.3. How Credits Are Applied

Credits are applied automatically to your team's monthly invoice before any cash payment is due. Your account balance in the platform displays your credits balance first; once all Credits have been fully consumed or have expired, your remaining funded balance is displayed. The following rules govern credit application:

1. Consumption order: Credits are deducted in order of soonest expiry date first. Credits with no expiry date are consumed last.
2. Partial consumption: A single Credit may be partially consumed across multiple billing cycles until its balance reaches zero.
3. Balance display: While Credits remain, the balance shown reflects your available Credits. After Credits are exhausted or expired, the balance shown reflects your deposited funds only. Your console will clearly indicate what portion of the displayed balance consists of Credits and the expiry date of those Credits, so you can plan your usage accordingly. A full breakdown of both is always available in the billing section of your console.

3.4. Credit Expiry

Credits may carry an expiry date, which will be displayed in your console. After the expiry date, any unused portion of that Credit is forfeited and cannot be reclaimed. Credits with no expiry date remain active indefinitely until fully consumed or revoked.

3.5. Revocation of Credits

Strettch Cloud reserves the right to revoke Credits, including after they have been partially consumed, in the following circumstances:

1. Your account is found to be in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy (Section 5).
2. The Credits were issued in error.
3. The Credits were obtained through fraudulent or abusive means.
4. For Credits issued under a promotional campaign or partnership programme: if that campaign or programme ends or is cancelled. Credits issued as refunds for service incidents or billing errors are not subject to revocation under this trigger.

Upon revocation, the remaining balance of the affected Credit(s) is immediately zeroed. You will be notified of any revocation that materially affects your account balance.

3.6. No Refund of Credits

Credits hold no cash value and cannot be refunded, redeemed for cash, or transferred to another team or account under any circumstances. When you close your account, any unused Credits are forfeited and will not be included in any refund calculation under Section 2.5.

3.7. No Guarantee of Future Credits

The issuance of Credits on one occasion does not create any entitlement to Credits in the future. Strettch Cloud makes no representations regarding the ongoing availability of any credit programme.

4. Referral Programme

4.1. How the Programme Works

Strettch Cloud operates a referral programme that allows existing users to invite new users to the platform. Each user account is assigned a unique referral link. When a new user signs up using your referral link, a referral relationship is established between you (the referrer) and the new user (the referred user).

4.2. Who Is Eligible for Credits

Both the referrer and the referred user become eligible for credits as a result of a successful referral. Eligibility does not mean credits are automatically issued; see Section 4.3 for the trigger condition.

4.3. When Credits Are Unlocked

Credits are not issued at the time of sign-up. They are unlocked when the referred user's cumulative paid top-ups across teams they own reach the minimum spending threshold published on the Strettch Cloud referral programme page, as updated from time to time. Top-ups made on teams where the referred user is only a member — but not the owner — do not count toward this threshold. Once that threshold is crossed, both the referrer and the referred user are notified and their respective credits become available to claim.

4.4. Claiming Credits

Credits do not apply to your account automatically. Once unlocked, each participant must actively claim their credits through the billing section of the console. At the time of claiming, you must select the team to which the credits will be applied. Credits can only be claimed onto a team that you own. If you have multiple unclaimed credits available and new credits are added to your account before you have claimed the previous ones, you will only have the option to apply all available credits at once to a single team of your choice; you cannot split them across multiple teams in that scenario. This ensures consistency in credit allocation and prevents partial application across teams.

4.5. Restrictions on Referral Credits

The following restrictions apply specifically to credits earned through the referral programme:

1. Credits can only be applied to a team you own. They cannot be claimed onto a team where you are only a member.
2. Each referral relationship yields one credit reward per participant. Once claimed, the reward cannot be claimed again.
3. Referral credits carry an expiry date. The expiry period is displayed at the time credits become available to claim. Unclaimed or unused credits that pass their expiry date are forfeited.
4. Self-referral — using your own referral link or creating accounts to generate referral rewards — is prohibited and constitutes abuse of the programme. Strettch Cloud may revoke credits and suspend accounts found to be engaging in such behaviour.

4.6. Programme Changes

Strettch Cloud reserves the right to modify or discontinue the referral programme, including the reward amount and spending threshold, at any time. Changes will be communicated in accordance with Section 14.1. Credits already claimed and applied to a team at the time of any programme change will not be affected.

5. Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Your use of the Services is subject to our Acceptable Use Policy, which is incorporated by reference into this Agreement. The AUP describes prohibited activities on the platform, including illegal use, malware, spam, denial-of-service attacks, intellectual property infringement, cryptocurrency mining, and high-risk activities. A violation of the AUP may lead to the suspension or termination of your team's account in accordance with Section 6.

6. Payment Enforcement and Account Actions

6.1. Payment Enforcement Timeline

When your team's account has a negative balance at the start of a Billing Cycle, the following enforcement timeline begins. All days are calendar days counted from the date the negative balance is first recorded (Day 1).

Day 1 — Account enters Past Due status. Your team can no longer create new resources. All existing resources continue to run normally and you retain full access to the platform. A notice is sent to the account owner.

Day 4, Day 8, Day 12 — Payment reminders. We send reminders on each of these days. You can restore Good Standing at any time during this period by bringing your account balance to zero or positive.

Day 14 — Final warning before suspension. A final warning notice is sent informing you that your account will be suspended the following day if the balance remains negative.

Day 15 — Account enters Suspended status. All your team's resources (VMs, databases, etc.) are powered down and become inaccessible. Your team loses access to the Strettch Cloud platform and web console. Login attempts will redirect you to a payment page. Your data remains preserved.

Day 18, Day 22, Day 26 — Suspension reminders. We continue sending reminders on each of these days. You can restore access at any time by bringing your account balance to zero or positive.

Day 28 — Final notice before termination. A final notice is sent warning that your account and all associated data will be permanently deleted if no payment is received.

Day 29 and beyond — Account termination. We reserve the right to permanently terminate your team's account and proceed with data deletion in accordance with Section 6.3.

Throughout this entire 28-day cycle, you receive a total of nine (9) notifications. You can resolve the situation and restore full access at any point by settling your outstanding balance.

6.2. Account Suspension for Policy Violations

We may also suspend your team's account for violations of our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), regardless of payment status.

1. Investigation Process: For suspected AUP violations, we will investigate the matter and may temporarily suspend access during the investigation.
2. Reactivation: If we determine, after completing our investigation, that the issue has been resolved or the suspicion was unfounded, we will promptly reactivate your account.

6.3. Account Termination and Data Deletion

1. Trigger for Termination: We reserve the right to permanently terminate your team's account if it remains in Suspended status beyond 28 days of the enforcement cycle (Day 29 and beyond).
2. Final Notice: Before termination, we will send a final notice warning of impending data deletion. By this point you will have already received multiple reminders throughout the preceding 28-day enforcement cycle.
3. Soft Deletion Window: Once resources are marked for deletion, the deletion process enters a forty-eight (48) hour soft-deletion window. During this window, you may request cancellation of the deletion by contacting our support team at cloud@strettch.com. If no such request is received within forty-eight (48) hours, the resources will proceed to permanent destruction.
4. Permanent Destruction: After the soft-deletion window has elapsed without a cancellation request, all provisioned resources (VMs, snapshots, volumes, backups, etc.) for your team will be permanently destroyed using commercially reasonable means, along with everything stored within them. This process is final — once destroyed, these resources cannot be recovered by you or by Strettch Cloud staff. Your account information and personal data are retained and handled separately in accordance with our Privacy Notice. You are responsible for maintaining your own backups of anything you wish to retain.

7. Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Strettch Cloud is currently in private beta. During the beta period, we guarantee a 98% uptime for our virtual machine and network services during any given monthly billing cycle, as measured by Strettch Cloud's internal monitoring systems. We intend to increase this commitment as the platform matures and will notify you in accordance with Section 14.1 when the SLA target changes.

If we fall below the 98% guarantee in a given billing cycle, you may request a service credit according to the following schedule:

1. 98%–95% uptime: Credit equal to 10% of your monthly charges for the affected resource(s).
2. 95%–90% uptime: Credit equal to 25% of your monthly charges for the affected resource(s).
3. Below 90% uptime: Credit equal to 50% of your monthly charges for the affected resource(s).

The remedy under this SLA is a platform credit applied to a future invoice; it is not a cash refund. Service credit requests must be filed within three (3) months of the relevant billing cycle. We will validate your request within fourteen (14) days of receipt and apply any approved credit to your next invoice.

8. Your Resources and Responsibilities

8.1. Ownership of Content

You and your team members retain all rights and ownership of everything you store on or within your provisioned resources (such as virtual machines and volumes). We do not claim any ownership rights to any of it.

8.2. User Responsibilities

You are solely responsible for your provisioned resources and everything stored within them. This includes making regular backups, using strong credentials, and applying necessary security patches to your VMs. Our paid backup service will be available for this purpose. While we implement security measures to protect our infrastructure, we are not responsible for loss of your provisioned resources or their contents caused by your actions or by events of force majeure. For clarity, this section applies to your provisioned resources and what is stored on them — it does not apply to your account information or personal data held by Strettch Cloud as a data processor, which is governed by our Privacy Notice. For the purposes of this Agreement, "force majeure" means events beyond a party's reasonable control, including but not limited to natural disasters, war, terrorism, pandemics, government orders or sanctions, internet backbone failures, widespread power grid failures, and acts of God.

9. Data Protection

9.1. Security Measures

Strettch Cloud implements commercially reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect the infrastructure on which the Services operate. These measures include, but are not limited to, encryption of data in transit and network-level access controls. You remain responsible for securing your own resources, including applying operating system patches, configuring firewalls within your VMs, and managing access credentials.

9.2. Data Breach Notification

In the event of a security incident that results in the unauthorised access, disclosure, or loss of data stored on your provisioned resources, Strettch Cloud will notify you without undue delay and no later than seventy-two (72) hours after becoming aware of the incident. The notification will include a description of the nature of the incident, the categories of data affected (to the extent known), and the measures taken or proposed to address the incident.

9.3. Relationship to Privacy Notice

For a full description of how Strettch Cloud collects, uses, stores, and processes personal data — including data residency, your rights as a data subject under Rwanda's Law No. 058/2021 on the protection of personal data, and data retention — please refer to our Privacy Notice, which is incorporated by reference into this Agreement.

10. Indemnification

10.1. Your Indemnification Obligations

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Strettch Cloud, its directors, employees, and agents from and against any third-party claims, losses, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the Services; (b) your provisioned resources and their contents; (c) your violation of this Agreement or any applicable law; or (d) your violation of any third party's rights, including intellectual property rights.

10.2. Indemnification Process

If Strettch Cloud receives a third-party claim for which it seeks indemnification, it will notify you within fourteen (14) days of becoming aware of the claim and provide cooperation in the defence of such claim, including making available relevant documents, information, and personnel as requested by you. You will have sole control of the defence and any settlement negotiations, provided that you may not agree to any settlement that imposes obligations on Strettch Cloud without our prior written consent.

10.3. Strettch Cloud Indemnification

Strettch Cloud will indemnify, defend, and hold harmless you from and against any third-party claim alleging that the Services, as provided by Strettch Cloud and used in accordance with this Agreement, infringe a third party's intellectual property rights. If such a claim is made, Strettch Cloud may, at its option: (a) modify the Services to make them non-infringing; (b) procure the right for you to continue using the Services; or (c) terminate your access to the affected portion of the Services and refund any prepaid amounts attributable to the period after termination. This section states Strettch Cloud's entire liability for intellectual property infringement claims.

11. Intellectual Property

11.1. Strettch Cloud Property

All rights, title, and interest in the Services — including the platform, APIs, documentation, user interface design, and all associated intellectual property rights — remain with Strettch Cloud. This Agreement grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Services solely in accordance with this Agreement.

11.2. Restrictions

You may not: (a) copy, modify, adapt, or create derivative works of any part of the Services; (b) reverse-engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Services; (c) use Strettch Cloud's trademarks, service marks, or logos without prior written permission; or (d) sublicense, sell, or otherwise transfer your right to access the Services to any third party.

11.3. Feedback

If you provide suggestions, ideas, or feedback about the Services ("Feedback"), you grant Strettch Cloud an irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use, modify, and incorporate such Feedback into the Services without obligation to you.

12. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

12.1. Governing Law

This Agreement and any dispute arising from it will be governed by the laws of the Republic of Rwanda.

12.2. Dispute Resolution

The parties agree to resolve any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of this Agreement through the following process:

1. Informal Negotiation: The parties will first attempt to resolve the dispute informally by contacting each other. This period lasts thirty (30) calendar days from the date one party sends written notice of the dispute to the other.
2. Mediation: If the dispute is not resolved through informal negotiation, the parties agree to submit the dispute to mediation administered by an independent, mutually agreed-upon mediator. If the parties cannot agree on a mediator within fourteen (14) calendar days, either party may request the Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC) to appoint one. The mediation period lasts sixty (60) calendar days from the appointment of the mediator.
3. Arbitration: If mediation fails, the dispute shall be referred to and finally resolved by arbitration administered by KIAC under its applicable arbitration rules. The arbitration shall take place in Kigali, Rwanda, and the language of the proceedings shall be English. The arbitral award is final and binding on both parties.
4. Urgent Relief: Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive or interim relief from the competent commercial courts of Kigali, Rwanda, where necessary to protect its rights pending the outcome of the dispute resolution process.

13. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

13.1. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, STRETTCH CLOUD EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

13.2. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW:

1. Exclusion of Consequential Damages: In no event will Strettch Cloud, its directors, employees, agents, or partners be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, loss of revenue, loss of data, loss of goodwill, service interruption, or cost of substitute services, arising out of or in connection with this Agreement or your use of the Services, however caused and regardless of the theory of liability.
2. Liability Cap: Strettch Cloud's total cumulative liability to you for any and all claims arising out of or in connection with this Agreement or the Services will not exceed the total amount you paid to Strettch Cloud in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or RWF 500,000, whichever is greater.
3. Essential Basis: You acknowledge that these limitations reflect a reasonable allocation of risk and are an essential basis of the bargain between you and Strettch Cloud. Strettch Cloud would not be able to provide the Services on the terms set out in this Agreement without these limitations.

13.3. Exceptions

Nothing in this Agreement limits or excludes liability for: (a) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; (b) either party's indemnification obligations under Section 10; or (c) any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable Rwandan law.

14. General Provisions

14.1. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify this Agreement at any time. We will provide notice of material changes by sending an email to the address associated with your account or by posting a notice on our platform, as described in our Privacy Notice. For material changes — including changes to pricing, data deletion timelines, or the SLA — we will provide at least thirty (30) days' notice before the change takes effect and may require your affirmative acceptance upon next login. Changes to the Acceptable Use Policy (Section 5) are considered non-material and take effect immediately upon posting. For all other non-material changes, your continued use of the Services after the notice period constitutes your acceptance of the updated Agreement.

14.2. Notices

All notices under this Agreement must be in writing. Strettch Cloud may send notices to you via the email address associated with your account or through in-app notifications on the platform. You may send formal notices to Strettch Cloud at cloud@strettch.com. Notices are deemed received: (a) if sent by email, on the date the email is sent; (b) if posted on the platform, on the date of posting.

14.3. Survival

Sections 2 (to the extent of unpaid obligations), 3 (to the extent of unredeemed or disputed Credits), 4.5, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 shall survive any termination or expiration of this Agreement.

14.4. Severability

If any provision of this Agreement is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect. The invalid provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable while preserving the original intent.

14.5. Assignment

Neither party may assign or transfer this Agreement, or any rights or obligations under it, without the other party's prior written consent, except that either party may assign this Agreement in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all of its assets.

14.6. Relationship of Parties

Nothing in this Agreement creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship between you and Strettch Cloud. Neither party has the authority to bind the other or to incur obligations on the other's behalf.

14.7. Term and Termination

1. Term. This Agreement is effective from the date you create your account and remains in effect until terminated by either party.
2. Termination by You. You may terminate this Agreement at any time by deleting all your teams and closing your account through the Strettch Cloud platform. Any refund of remaining balance is subject to Section 2.5.
3. Termination by Strettch Cloud. Strettch Cloud may suspend or terminate your access to the Services as described in Section 6.

14.8. Entire Agreement

This Agreement, along with the Privacy Notice and Acceptable Use Policy, constitutes the entire agreement between you and Strettch Cloud and supersedes all prior agreements.