Companies / Wind-down service
SimpleClosure
A company-shutdown service whose AssetHub brokers the sale or licence of code, workspace data, IP and domains, for a percentage on success. Recorded here: 5 clauses of its contract in its own words, what it sells, in its own words, 2 funding events, 8 public prices and 6 market records.
Founded 2023simpleclosure.comLatest record 15 Oct 2026
disclosed funding raised
How SimpleClosure buys data
SimpleClosure, What your assets are worth, 14 Oct 2026- What it wants
- Source code, and workspace data such as email, Slack, Notion and Drive.
- What it publishes about price
- "Tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for unique assets". Early deals were reported at $10,000 to $100,000.
- Who it takes
- Startups shutting down, and now companies still operating too.
- How the holder is paid
- Not published.
- Who removes personal data
- SimpleClosure processes personal data before licensing and excludes compensation, health and other sensitive records.
- What it pays for an introduction
- Up to $1,000 for a referred shutdown; nothing published for data sales.
We are not SimpleClosure's agent, partner or representative. If you hold data it might buy, we can put it in front of SimpleClosure and every other buyer that fits at the same time.
What SimpleClosure sells
In its own words, read on its own site 15 Oct 2026. On the vendor register
- What it sells
Datasets: “We work with a vetted network of strategic buyers, including leading AI foundation labs, reinforcement learning environment builders, and other technology companies looking for real-world data for AI training.” simpleclosure.com
- Where its data comes from
The client's own data: “Founders working with SimpleClosure can recover it through two distinct ways: the codebases they built, and the workspace data from how their teams actually worked.” simpleclosure.com
- Buys data from owners
- Its programme is set out above.
- Areas its pages name
- Coding, Business work
What SimpleClosure's contract says
A shutdown service that also sells companies' assets, and may buy them itself. The clauses SimpleClosure publishes for the people it buys data from, in its own words, the costliest first. “Our reading” is ours, not SimpleClosure's. These terms change: read the page itself before you sign.
Licence and use
Submitting assets lets SimpleClosure de-identify your data and use it for any legal purpose.
“Your license to us includes permission for us to aggregate, anonymize, and de-identify Your Data to use for any legal purpose. The foregoing license specifically includes Digital Assets (defined below) you submit through the Asset Hub Services”
Our reading: Uploading is itself a licence, before any buyer is found.
simpleclosure.com, read 11 Oct 2026Resale
Whoever acquires the assets may license or sell them on, without your consent or further payment.
“the acquiring entity will thereafter have the right to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, license, sell, or otherwise exploit the Digital Assets for any lawful purpose, including licensing or sale to third parties, without further consent from or compensation to you”
Our reading: Every later sale of your data pays you nothing.
simpleclosure.com, read 11 Oct 2026Other
You warrant every notice and consent from the people in the data: employees, contractors, customers, investors and vendors.
“You have provided all required notices to, and obtained all required consents from, any individuals whose personal information may be contained in the Digital Assets, including employees, contractors, customers, investors, and vendors”
Our reading: A wide warranty that few companies can give truthfully without a rights file.
simpleclosure.com, read 11 Oct 2026When you are paid
No upfront cost; SimpleClosure takes a percentage if the assets sell. The rate is not published.
“There’s no upfront cost to use AssetHub. SimpleClosure only takes a percentage if your assets are successfully sold or licensed.”
Our reading: Compare its percentage with any other fee before you sign.
simpleclosure.com, read 11 Oct 2026Other
It states it is not your adviser or fiduciary.
“SimpleClosure is not a board advisor or fiduciary.”
Our reading: It runs the sale and may be the buyer, and it does not owe you the best price.
simpleclosure.com, read 11 Oct 2026
Not published: Its success percentage, Payment timing, Exclusivity. Ask for each in writing.
Public prices involving SimpleClosure
- A closed crypto startup's code base (Keelan Miskell's company, about two and a half years of work), sold through SimpleClosure's Asset Hub
Named seller speaking on the record to named press; the buyer is not named and 'netted' means after SimpleClosure's cut, whose size is not stated. Code only: the same company's workspace data is a separate, still-pending sale (miskell-crypto-startup-workspace-data-pending-15k). Users were anonymous and the company a few years old, so this is a floor case for a small closed startup.
Press report, MIT Technology Review, AI labs are buying data from dead startups to train their models (Matthew King, 13 Oct 2026)
roughly $25,000per company code base (net to the founder)
- The same closed crypto startup's workspace data (Google, Notion, Figma and Slack), sale through SimpleClosure pending
Not yet paid: the amount is the seller's expectation for a pending sale, so it is filed as an offer, not a realised licence. With the code base (about $25,000) the whole small startup comes to about $40,000 if it closes, inside SimpleClosure's reported $10K to $100K per-company band.
Press report, MIT Technology Review, AI labs are buying data from dead startups to train their models (Matthew King, 13 Oct 2026)
a still-pending amount (likely around $15,000)per company workspace archive (pending, expected)
- Proceeds to venture-backed startups from AssetHub sales and licences of code and workspace data (aggregate, 350+ companies supported)
A forecast of total proceeds to the companies selling through AssetHub, not realised sales. The same release says AI buyers grew 9X on 2025, a demand signal for company records.
A vendor's published price guide, SimpleClosure press release (BusinessWire, via Webull)
more than $10 million (on track, by end of 2026)aggregate across all AssetHub companies
- Company assets (code and workspace data) sold or licensed through SimpleClosure's AssetHub
SimpleClosure's own account of deals it facilitated, including for operating companies; it adds that enterprise asset sales reach into the millions.
A vendor's published price guide, SimpleClosure, What your assets are worth
deals in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollarsper company
- A shut-down startup's archive (SimpleClosure's first deals)
Nearly 100 deals for just over $1M in total, so most were near the bottom of the range. Small teams with short histories fetch little. Forbes, the original report, refuses scripted reads, so the figure is quoted from Fortune's account of it.
Press report, Fortune, citing Forbes
$10K to $100Kper company
- Code bases and workspace data of shut-down startups sold through SimpleClosure's test marketplace, the average deal over its first year
The average behind the $10,000 to $100,000 per company SimpleClosure reported for the same deals (row dead-startup): its founder's own totals for the test marketplace's first year, as he told Forbes in April 2026. Payments realised by the startups that sold. Both totals are rounded, so the average is about $10,000, not exactly it.
Press report, Upstarts Media, Exclusive: SimpleClosure data on what AI labs buy (Alex Konrad, 3 Sep 2026)
$1 million ... across nearly 100 dealsin total, across nearly 100 deals
- Defunct companies' workplace data (Slack, email, Jira, documents) bought by the wind-down firm Sunset
Named press on a second wind-down firm's completed purchases, in a range Forbes calls similar to SimpleClosure's (not identical), sellers unnamed; Sunset's CEO Brendan Mahony prices on company size, age and how linked the data is, with premiums for healthcare and finance. The English original refuses scripted reads, so the Japanese edition Forbes licensed is quoted. Sunset buys rather than brokers, so these are prices paid to the closing company.
a similar price range (同様の価格帯) to SimpleClosure's 1万ドル to 10万ドル ($10,000 to $100,000) per companyper company
- Data assets of a closed transcription company built over more than a decade (cielo24, est. 2012; per Forbes, 13 years of Slack messages, Jira tickets, emails and Google Drive files), sold during its wind-down to an organisation in language technology
The wind-down firm's own account of a sale the seller confirmed on the record (former CEO Shanna Johnson told Forbes in April 2026 it brought 'hundreds of thousands of dollars'), so realised; 'mid-six figures' narrows that. The buyer is described only as an organisation working in language technology. Supersedes the Fortune-sourced 'hundreds of thousands' row for the same deal.
A vendor's published price guide, SimpleClosure, customer story: cielo24
mid-six figuresper company archive
Funding and acquisitions
- 7 May 2025EventSeries AAmount$15M
- 27 Feb 2024EventSeedAmount$4M
In the brokerage market
Oct 2026, intermediary
over 150 deals; expects to return over $10 million by end of 2026; 47% of its deals now include code or data sales
MIT Technology Review reporting, with the CEO as the source of the 150, the $10 million and the 47%. It supersedes the April 2026 figure of nearly 100 deals (Forbes).
Oct 2026, transaction
roughly $25,000 for the code base; a pending amount (likely around $15,000) for workspace data
One founder's sale brokered by SimpleClosure (the founder is named in the article).
Sep 2026, broker economics
on track to return more than $10 million to startups by the end of 2026 (a forecast, not money already returned)
350+ companies supported; AI buyers up 9X versus 2025; AssetHub opened to operating companies; free for SimpleClosure dissolution customers (fee for others not disclosed). Multi-pass de-identification; sensitive employee and health records not sold.
SimpleClosure press release (syndicated via Webull), 3 Sep 2026
Sep 2026, price range
tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars; potentially millions at enterprise scale
Based on 350+ startup datasets. About 37% of raw code disappeared after removing third-party or generated code and duplicates. Demand cited in manufacturing, energy, banking and insurance, professional services and logistics.
Apr 2026, price range
$10,000 to $100,000 per company; nearly 100 deals; over $1 million recovered
CEO Dori Yona's figures to Forbes. SimpleClosure removes personally identifiable information before sale.
Apr 2026, transaction
hundreds of thousands of dollars
Former CEO Shanna Johnson's account; buyer and exact price not disclosed.
Cite this
AIData.Broker, “SimpleClosure in the AI training data market”, reviewed 15 Oct 2026. https://aidata.markets/companies/simpleclosure
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 if you credit AIData.Broker and link to this page. Each row names the publication that stated it, and words quoted from a source keep that source's own terms.