Acceptation Policy

At Capital Circle, Transparency is Key

At Capital Circle, we value transparency — not only towards you as an entrepreneur, but also towards our potential investors. That’s why we apply a clear and straightforward acceptance policy. The guidelines below provide you with a solid foundation to assess whether your application is likely to succeed.

Did you know that 7 out of 10 applications fall outside our acceptance policy and must therefore be declined? However, once your project is listed on our platform, there is over a 90% chance that the target amount will be successfully raised.

1. Identity Verification

Our investors have the right to know who they are doing business with. We therefore verify the details of both the legal entity and the natural person(s) behind it. We also assess your payment behaviour, using publicly available information from EDR Credit Services and/or Experian. If warranted, we may ask you to submit a recent BKR (Credit Registration Office) report.

When submitting a formal financing request, the entrepreneur must also complete the onboarding process with our payment service provider GoCredible. The legal entity will then undergo checks in accordance with the WWFT (Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act) and Sanctions Act, right down to the UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner) level.

2. Quantitative Assessment

The second step is the evaluation of your project, for example through the financial records of recent years. For startups, this may include forecasts such as balance sheet or cash flow projections.

This assessment focuses on five key elements:

• Solvency of your business
• Profitability of your business
• Debt repayment capacity
• Securities pledged to the financing
• Your experience as an entrepreneur

Capital Circle categorises projects into various risk classes, ranging from relatively low to relatively high risk. These classifications help our investors understand the financial feasibility of your project. The classification also determines the minimum nominal interest rate you will be required to offer investors. The higher the risk, the higher the interest rate should be.

* Interest rates based on 36 month duration, as of May 14, 2025 (source Financieel Dagblad, see also Risk Classifications).

3. Qualitative Assessment

The quantitative analysis is complemented by the following minimum qualitative assessment criteria:

1. Identity verification (of one or more owners of the borrowing entity)
2. Startup company (less than two financial years available)
3. Experience, competence and skill level of the owners, key personnel, advisers, intermediary involved, and the quality of the accounting records
4. Personal liability accepted by the entrepreneur
5. Personal liability accepted by the legal entity
6. Collateral or mortgage registration
7. Personal financial contribution, value of own/unencumbered assets, third-party guarantees or additional securities

4. Final Risk Classification

The combination of both quantitative and qualitative assessments results in the final risk qualification, where the presence of tangible securities is also taken into account.

We provide transparency on the platform regarding the completeness of the proposal, entrepreneurial capabilities, securities, guarantees, and any other relevant information that might impact business results.

Entrepreneurs are free to offer a higher interest rate than the one formally resulting from the quantitative assessment. This could help increase the likelihood of campaign success. However, the higher monthly obligations must still fit within the project’s calculated repayment capacity.

5. Rejection of Your Project Application

Despite our efforts to help improve your project on quantitative and/or qualitative grounds, we may still decide to reject certain applications. Below are the reasons for outright rejection. For clarity, please note that a rejection does not entitle the applicant to a refund of the €395 assessment fee.

Your project will be rejected if:

• There is a recent, unresolved negative BKR registration
• The result of the quantitative assessment places the project outside the highest accepted risk class (5), indicating insufficient financial foundation
• A project falling within the (very) high-risk category (class 5 or 6) is not combined with at least one of qualitative criteria 4, 5, 6, or 7
• The entrepreneur intends to use the funding for purposes not stated in the project description

Please note: Capital Circle reserves all rights and may decline a project at any stage — including up to the release of investor funds — based on newly acquired insights. These insights may emerge, for example, through questions or comments submitted via the platform once a project is published.