HeadstartGlobal Pte. Ltd.

Startup Partner Agreement

Academic Year 2026–27

1. PURPOSE

1.1Headstart operates an early-careers platform that connects university students ("Students") with founder-mentored micro-internships ("Projects") listed by early-stage companies, and with graduate employers.

1.2The Startup wishes to list Projects on the platform and to work with Student teams that Headstart forms. This Agreement sets out the terms on which that happens and applies to every Project the Startup lists during the Term.

2. STATUS OF THIS AGREEMENT

2.1This Agreement is legally binding on both Parties.

2.2Nothing in this Agreement creates a legal partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship between Headstart and the Startup, or between the Startup and any Student. Neither Party may bind the other or hold itself out as able to do so.

3. TERM

3.1This Agreement begins on the Effective Date and continues for twelve (12) months (the "Term").

3.2The Term renews automatically for further periods of twelve (12) months unless either Party notifies the other in writing, at least thirty (30) days before the end of the then-current period, that it does not wish to renew. Either Party may also end this Agreement under clause 14.

4. LISTING PROJECTS AND FEES

4.1The Startup may submit a Project for listing through the Headstart startup partner form or the platform. Each submission must include a clear brief: objectives, the skills needed, the expected length (six to ten weeks) and team size, and the name of the founder or senior team member who will mentor the team (the "Project Lead"). Headstart may ask for changes to a brief and may decline to list any Project at its discretion.

4.2A listing fee of £20 (twenty pounds sterling) is payable for each Project submitted (the "Listing Fee"). The Listing Fee is paid at the point of submission, through the platform or the payment link Headstart provides, and a Project will not be reviewed or listed until it has been paid. Fees are stated exclusive of any VAT, GST or similar tax that may apply.

4.3If Headstart declines to list a Project, or is unable to form a team for a listed Project, Headstart will refund the Listing Fee or, if the Startup prefers, carry it forward to the next cycle. The Listing Fee is otherwise non-refundable, including where the Startup withdraws the Project or ends it early.

4.4Headstart may change the Listing Fee for future cycles by publishing the new fee on the platform at least thirty (30) days before it takes effect. The new fee applies only to Projects submitted after that date.

5. RECRUITMENT AND MATCHING

5.1Headstart, supported by a Headstart Project Director, reviews applications, interviews candidates and selects each Project team, including a team lead. The Startup may specify the skills and experience it is looking for, and Headstart will take that into account, but the selection decision is Headstart's.

5.2The Startup will not ask to see all applications, sit in on Headstart's interviews, or run its own selection process for a Project. Headstart makes offers and sends rejections; the Startup will not do so.

5.3Headstart does not guarantee the number, availability, performance or continued participation of Students on any Project. If a Student leaves a Project, Headstart will use reasonable efforts to find a replacement where one is available.

6. NATURE OF STUDENT PARTICIPATION

6.1Students take part in Projects voluntarily and without pay, as a learning experience. Students are not employees, workers or contractors of the Startup or of Headstart. The Startup will not treat them as such and will not describe them as such to third parties.

6.2The Startup will:

(a)not pay Students any wage, fee, bonus, commission, equity or benefit for a Project, and not offer to do so;

(b)not set working hours, require attendance, impose enforceable deadlines or deliverables, carry out performance assessments or apply disciplinary processes to Students. Four to six hours a week is an indication Students use to plan, not a commitment the Startup may enforce;

(c)accept that any Student may pause or leave a Project at any time without penalty;

(d)not ask Students to sign any contract, non-disclosure agreement, intellectual property assignment or other document. The Headstart Student Agreement already contains confidentiality and intellectual property terms in the Startup's favour (see clauses 9 and 10). If the Startup needs more, it will ask Headstart;

(e)not give Students access to premises, systems or data in a way that would be inappropriate for an unpaid, short-term participant, and not require any on-site attendance.

6.3The Startup may reimburse a Student's reasonable out-of-pocket expenses that were agreed in advance (for example, travel to an agreed on-site session). Reimbursement of expenses is not compensation and must not be presented as such.

6.4The Startup acknowledges that the arrangements in this clause are designed to keep Student participation outside employment and National Minimum Wage legislation. If the Startup departs from them, it does so at its own risk, and clause 13.4 applies.

7. WHAT THE STARTUP WILL DO

7.1For each Project, the Startup will:

(a)make the Project Lead available to meet the Project Director before the cycle starts, attend a kick-off meeting with the team, and be reasonably available to the team during the Project;

(b)provide mentorship-style guidance, feedback and coaching, and treat Students with courtesy and respect;

(c)provide any information, tools, access or materials the team reasonably needs to work on the brief, at the Startup's cost;

(d)comply with all laws that apply to it, including equality, anti-harassment, health and safety and data protection law, and maintain appropriate insurance for any on-site activity it invites Students to;

(e)include the Project Director in the team's communication channel and tell the Project Director promptly of any concern about the Project or a Student;

(f)take part in a mid-project check-in and a wrap-up call, and complete Headstart's feedback form at the end of the Project;

(g)not end a Project early without first discussing it with the Project Director, and give Headstart at least seven (7) days' notice where practicable.

7.2The person who accepts this Agreement on the Startup's behalf confirms that they have authority to do so. The Startup will tell Headstart if its main contact for this Agreement changes.

8. WHAT HEADSTART WILL DO

8.1Headstart will:

(a)list approved Projects on the platform in the cycle agreed with the Startup;

(b)recruit, screen and select a Student team for each Project and introduce the team to the Startup;

(c)assign a Project Director as the Startup's first point of contact, who will run the kick-off, check in with the team at least fortnightly, conduct a mid-project check-in and close the Project with a wrap-up call;

(d)run a welcome session for all Students at the start of each cycle covering working norms and expectations;

(e)use reasonable efforts to resolve issues raised by the Startup or a Student and, where a Student leaves, to find a replacement where one is available.

8.2Headstart provides a platform and a support process. It does not supervise Students' day-to-day work and gives no warranty as to the quality, accuracy or fitness of any Project Work, or that any Project will achieve a particular outcome.

9. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

9.1Under the Headstart Student Agreement, each Student assigns to the Startup all intellectual property rights in the work they create for the Startup's Project ("Project Work") as it is created, and waives their moral rights so far as the law allows. The Startup may enforce that assignment directly against the Student.

9.2Headstart makes no claim to Project Work and gives no warranty that Project Work does not infringe third-party rights. The Startup is responsible for reviewing Project Work before relying on or publishing it.

9.3The Startup acknowledges that Students may describe the Project and their role in it, and show non-confidential examples of their Project Work, in CVs, portfolios and professional profiles.

9.4Headstart retains sole ownership of the Headstart platform, brand, materials, templates, selection criteria and methodology. The Startup acquires no rights in them.

9.5Each Party permits the other to use its name and logo during the Term to identify the Startup as a Headstart partner and to promote the Project, on the platform, in Headstart's marketing and on social media. Materials must be used as supplied. Either Party may withdraw this permission on written notice, except for material already published.

10. CONFIDENTIALITY

10.1Each Party will keep confidential any non-public information the other provides which is marked confidential or is obviously confidential, and will use it only for the purposes of this Agreement.

10.2Students are bound by confidentiality obligations to the Startup under the Headstart Student Agreement, which the Startup may enforce directly. The Startup should nonetheless take a sensible approach to what it shares with an unpaid, short-term team.

10.3This clause does not apply to information that is or becomes public through no fault of the receiving Party, was already lawfully known to it, or must be disclosed by law. It continues for three (3) years after this Agreement ends.

11. DATA PROTECTION

11.1Each Party is an independent controller of the personal data it holds. Neither Party acts as the other's processor. Each Party will comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (and, where applicable to the Startup, any equivalent law where it is established) in everything it does under this Agreement.

11.2Headstart will share with the Startup the names, contact details, CVs and application information of the Students selected for its team, and no other applicants' data. The Startup will:

(a)use that data only to run the Project and communicate with the team;

(b)not use it for marketing, recruitment outside clause 12, profiling or any other purpose, and not share it with third parties except its own personnel who need it for the Project;

(c)keep it secure and delete it within thirty (30) days after the Project ends, except for what it reasonably needs to keep to comply with clause 12 or the law;

(d)tell Headstart without undue delay if it becomes aware of a personal data breach affecting that data.

11.3If the Startup gives Students access to personal data it holds (for example, its customers or users), the Startup remains the controller of that data, is responsible for deciding whether that access is appropriate and lawful, and will give the team clear instructions on how to handle it.

12. HIRING STUDENTS

12.1Headstart welcomes Startups going on to hire Students they meet through a Project. Within fourteen (14) days of offering any Student a role, the Startup will tell Headstart the Student's name, the role, its start date and whether it is a permanent, fixed-term, internship or part-time role.

12.2If, within twelve (12) months after the end of a Project, the Startup (or any company in its group) engages a Student who took part in that Project, the Startup will pay Headstart an introduction fee of:

(a)5% of the Student's gross annual salary or fee (or full-time equivalent, for part-time roles) for the first year of the engagement, for a permanent role, a fixed-term contract, or any engagement expected to last three (3) months or more of full-time-equivalent work; or

(b)£250 for an internship, placement or part-time engagement expected to last less than three (3) months of full-time-equivalent work.

12.3Headstart will invoice the introduction fee when the Student's engagement starts, payable within seven (7) days. If an engagement under clause 12.2(b) is later extended or converted so that it falls within clause 12.2(a), the fee under clause 12.2(a) becomes payable, less any amount already paid under clause 12.2(b). No fee is payable more than once for the same Student.

12.4This clause is intended to be reasonable in scope. It does not restrict any Student's freedom to accept work, and it does not apply to a Student who had already applied to or been in contact with the Startup about a role before the Project, provided the Startup can show this.

13. LIABILITY

13.1Nothing in this Agreement limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law.

13.2Subject to clause 13.1, neither Party is liable to the other for any indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of business or opportunity, or loss of data.

13.3Subject to clause 13.1, each Party's total liability to the other under or in connection with this Agreement, in any twelve-month period, is limited to the total fees paid by the Startup to Headstart in that period.

13.4The Startup will indemnify Headstart against any claim, cost or loss arising from (a) the Startup treating a Student as an employee or worker, or acting inconsistently with clause 6; (b) the Startup's breach of clause 11; or (c) any injury, loss or damage suffered by a Student at the Startup's premises or arising from the Startup's acts or omissions.

14. TERMINATION

14.1Either Party may end this Agreement at any time by giving the other thirty (30) days' written notice. Any Project in progress will continue to its scheduled end unless the Parties agree otherwise.

14.2Headstart may end this Agreement, or withdraw a team from a Project, immediately by written notice if the Startup breaches clause 6 or clause 11, behaves towards a Student in a way that Headstart reasonably considers inappropriate, fails to pay an introduction fee under clause 12 within fourteen (14) days of a reminder, or does anything that could bring Headstart into disrepute.

14.3Clauses 2, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 16 continue after this Agreement ends.

15. NOTICES

15.1Notices under this Agreement are to be sent by email — to management@headstartglobal.io for Headstart, and to the email address registered on the platform for the Startup — and are treated as given on the next business day.

16. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

16.1This Agreement, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it, is governed by the law of England and Wales.

16.2The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

17. GENERAL

17.1This Agreement sets out everything the Parties have agreed about the Startup's use of the Headstart platform and Projects, and replaces any earlier agreement or understanding between them on the same subject, whether written or oral, including any earlier Headstart Startup Agreement.

17.2This Agreement may only be changed in writing, signed by both Parties, except that Headstart may update the Listing Fee under clause 4.4.

17.3Neither Party may assign this Agreement without the other's written consent, except that Headstart may assign it to a successor to its business on notice.

17.4No one other than the Parties has rights under this Agreement, except that Students may rely on clause 6 and clause 12.4.

17.5If any part of this Agreement is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. This Agreement is accepted electronically by ticking the acceptance box on the Headstart platform, which has the same effect as a signature.