Sell data from a closed startup? How to license it to AI buyers

Which programs accept closed companies?

Of the nine programs on our tracker, four publish that they work with companies that have closed. Each one is a different kind of program, which changes how you are paid and who ends up with the data. See who buys company data for what each kind means.

Program	Kind	Status it publishes	How the company is paid
micro1	Aggregator	Operating, winding down (a status on its company sign-up) and a separate Defunct Company Data Partnership track	In full within 30 days of acceptance; the program as a whole publishes $100K to $3M+
Turing (Project Lazarus)	Aggregator	“Active, winding down or wound down”	Revenue share from each license, with the percentage set in the agreement; no range published
SimpleClosure AssetHub	Closure marketplace	Closing and closed companies, and operating ones since September 2026	A license, where you keep the assets, or an outright sale; “tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars” for unique assets
AIData.Broker	Broker	Operating, winding down and closed; lists “Closing startups and estates” as a segment	Set by each buyer; the buyer pays the data holder directly

Sources: micro1, Turing, SimpleClosure, AIData.Broker.

The rest say less. Endless Data describes its program as data licensing for operating companies (source). Polyshares has an article saying a sale “can make sense” for a wound-down business, while a license is the structure for a going concern (source). Mercor, Handshake AI and Korra do not publish anything about company status.

Why does the payment structure matter more after closing?

An operating company can wait for money. A closing company usually works to a timeline: a date when accounts close, the books are finished and what is left is distributed. Under Florida’s LLC statute, for example, a dissolved company continues after dissolution only for the purpose of winding up (Fla. Stat. 605.0709). The payment has to fit inside that window, or someone has to be there to receive it after.

Structure	Example	What it needs from a closed company
Payment on acceptance	micro1: in full within 30 days of acceptance	The company, a bank account and someone to answer questions, until acceptance and payment
Revenue share	Turing: paid from each license it grants	Someone to receive payments as licenses happen, for as long as they continue, and to distribute them
Marketplace license or outright sale	SimpleClosure: handles receipt and distribution of proceeds	Approval of each licensee or purchaser; with a license, the company still holds the asset at the end of the wind-down
Paid directly by an introduced buyer	AIData.Broker: structure set by each buyer	Depends on the buyer; the company receives payment itself

A single payment suits a dissolution timeline. It arrives once and is distributed with the other assets. micro1 says it pays in full within 30 days of acceptance (source), which fits a fixed timeline as long as acceptance does not slip. Ask what happens if review takes longer than planned.

A revenue share needs someone to receive payments over time. Turing pays the company from each license, charges nothing upfront and covers preparation costs from licensing revenue. It says payment usually comes within the first 2 months of scoping, and that Turing alone licenses the record for the first 90 days after signing, after which you renew or opt out (source). Each of those steps needs a person with authority on the company’s side. Before you sign, ask your attorney how payments that arrive after the wind-down would otherwise end will be received, reported and distributed.

A marketplace deal moves the paperwork to the marketplace. SimpleClosure says it handles matching, documentation and distribution of proceeds, and takes a percentage only on success; the percentage is not published (source). Its September 2026 release says AssetHub remains free for SimpleClosure dissolution customers (source).

A broker leaves the structure to the buyer. AIData.Broker says the buyer pays the data holder directly and that it cannot receive the payment itself (source). So the structure, and whether it fits your timeline, depends on which buyer you sign with.

Who has to sign for a closed company?

The records belong to the company, not to the founders personally, and the money goes to creditors and shareholders in the normal order. The closing a company page covers ownership, distribution and bankruptcy basics. Who signs depends on where the company is in the process:

Situation	Who signs
Winding up under state law	The company, through the people its documents and state law put in charge of winding up. Florida’s statute lets a dissolved LLC transfer property as part of winding up (Fla. Stat. 605.0709)
Assignment for the benefit of creditors	The assignee. Florida’s statute directs the assignee to collect and reduce to money the assets of the estate (Fla. Stat. 727.108)
Chapter 7	The trustee, whose duties include collecting and reducing to money the property of the estate (11 U.S.C. 704)
Chapter 11	Usually the company as debtor in possession (U.S. Courts), with court approval for deals outside the ordinary course of business (11 U.S.C. 363)

Expect the program to ask who has authority. A board or member resolution approving the license, or in a formal process the assignment document or court order, can show it. If the company is in bankruptcy and its privacy policy limited transfers of personal information, the Bankruptcy Code restricts transferring that information; the closing page explains the consumer privacy ombudsman. The simplest path is to keep customer personal data out entirely.

Can you license only the code?

Yes, with some programs. Turing says it accepts code-only deals (source). SimpleClosure AssetHub has a SourceCode product for code, repos and documentation, separate from its WorkspaceData product, and a GitHub connect (source). AIData.Broker lists codebases among the data it values (source). micro1 does not publish code as a data type.

A code-only deal still needs checking:

• Commit history carries identities. Git records the author’s name and email address in every commit (Git documentation). Decide whether those stay in or are stripped.
• Secrets stay in history. Keys or passwords committed in the past remain in old commits even after they were removed from the current code. Turing says it removes personal data and secrets before anything reaches a model (source); revoke any key that still works regardless.
• Not all code is yours. Open-source components come with their own licenses, and code written for clients may belong to them under their contracts. Code transferred in an earlier acquisition or asset purchase belongs to whoever acquired it.
• Documentation and tickets may come along. SourceCode at SimpleClosure covers documentation too. Tickets and design docs can name customers, so review them the same way you would review chat.

What should you check before you sign?

• Exports exist, and the accounts stay open until the deal is done (preservation checklist)
• The person signing has authority, in writing
• The scope lists systems, date ranges and what stays out
• The payment structure fits the wind-down timeline
• A named account receives payment, and a named person distributes it
• The deletion date, and what survives it, are in the agreement
• At least two programs that take closed companies have been compared

Run the value check to see whose published criteria you meet, and read how licensing company data to AI works for the full deal process.

Referral disclosure. All four programs above run referral programs, and SellData.ai may be paid under them. SimpleClosure’s covers its shutdown services; whether AssetHub deals count is not stated. micro1 pays referrers more for defunct-company deals than for operating ones: $75,000 for deals up to $1M, against $50,000 for deals up to $700,000, and 7.5% above either (source). The program pays the fee, not the company or its estate.