Ask Sterling privacy notice
Last updated 1 October 2026
Who we are
Ask Sterling is a trading name of OPTIMAX AI LTD, registered in England & Wales (No. 16143914), 38 Sunnymede Avenue, Epsom KT19 9TJ, United Kingdom. We are the controller for the details you give us here. Contact: mike@optimax-ai.com. Sterling is our guide character, not a real person and not a lender.
What we collect
- Your answers about the business (amount, purpose, industry, time trading, turnover, CCJs, company number, existing finance, ownership).
- Your name, business name, email and mobile number.
- A record of the consent you gave: the exact wording, its version, the time, your IP address and browser.
- Cookies for advertising measurement and form analytics, only if you accept them in the cookie banner.
What we do with it
- If your answers fit our funding partner's criteria and you send them, we pass your enquiry to one partner only: Abbey Road Capital Ltd / SOJA Ventures (Co. No. 16907324). They contact you about this enquiry. We receive a fee from them for each introduction. Lawful basis: you asked us to (UK GDPR Art 6(1)(b)), and our legitimate interest in handling the enquiry (Art 6(1)(f)).
- If they don't fit, your details stay with Ask Sterling. With your consent we may contact you about other business funding options, and we ask you before passing your details to anyone. Lawful basis: your consent (Art 6(1)(a)); withdraw it any time.
- We never sell your details.
Who processes it for us
Hosting (Vercel), our database (Supabase), email delivery (Google), internal alerts (Slack), and — only with your cookie consent — Meta, Reddit and PostHog. Some of these providers are outside the UK; transfers rely on the UK's adequacy regulations or standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep it
Twelve months from your enquiry, then we delete it. Consent records may be kept longer where the law requires us to prove consent.
Your rights
You can ask to see, correct or delete your data, object, restrict processing, or withdraw consent, by emailing mike@optimax-ai.com. You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).