SimpleClosure review and alternatives: selling a shut-down startup's code and data

What SimpleClosure does

SimpleClosure handles the dissolution of venture-backed companies: legal filings, tax compliance and execution. It raised $20.5 million in total, including a $15 million Series A in May 2025, when TechCrunch reported that Carta had retired its own shutdown product and was backing SimpleClosure instead; Carta customers get a free consultation and 10% off.

On 16 April 2026 it launched Asset Hub so founders can sell what they built during a wind-down. Source code sales went live first, with workspace data (email, Slack, Notion, Google Drive) in beta. SimpleClosure runs the transaction itself: collecting the data, removing personal information and transferring it. Its buyers are AI labs, RL environment builders and other technology companies.

Source: Business Wire: SimpleClosure launches Asset Hub (Apr 2026)

What founders have been paid

Payouts reported by Forbes run from $10,000 to $100,000 per company, Fast Company reported. One example in MIT Technology Review: about $25,000 for a code base, with about $15,000 more pending for workspace data. The same report said Asset Hub had handled over 150 deals, that 47% of SimpleClosure's deals now include a code or data sale, and that it expected to return over $10 million to startups by the end of 2026.

SimpleClosure's own estimate of value runs from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, up to millions at enterprise scale. By September 2026, more than 350 companies had offered assets through it, about 500 million lines of code across 3,000 repositories. At launch it reported a success rate of more than 20% for source code sales.

Source: MIT Technology Review: AI labs buying data from dead startups (Oct 2026)

What it costs

SimpleClosure publishes a shutdown-cost calculator rather than a price list. Its comparison guide puts a managed wind-down at $25,000 to $75,000, an ABC at $75,000 to $150,000 because of trustee fees, and says ABCs take three to six months. Those are a competitor's estimates of the alternatives, so get quotes.

It does not publish the share of a data sale it keeps. Ask for the fee basis in writing, and whether you can take the data to another buyer if no sale closes.

Source: SimpleClosure: managed wind-down vs ABC vs bankruptcy (July 2026)

SimpleClosure alternatives compared

Which route fits depends on whether you also need the wind-down handled, how fast you need to move and how much control you want over the buyer.

Sunset

Sunset handles the legal, tax and operational sides of a shutdown for a one-time flat fee. It offers to license a company's de-identified operating data to AI labs or to sell or auction its assets and IP, and says it has redistributed more than $200 million. MIT Technology Review described its data resale business as fast-growing and reported that it values data by headcount, years operating, data volume and the tools used. It raised a $1.45 million seed round in February 2024, TechCrunch reported.

Source: Sunset: how to monetize assets before you shut down (Mar 2026)

Before you choose

• Export first: Slack, email, tickets, docs and code, before any subscription lapses. A deleted workspace cannot be sold.
• Ask each provider for its share of the data sale, the buyer list it uses and whether you approve each buyer.
• Check what employees and customers were told; personal information is removed or excluded in most sales. See selling Slack and email archives.
• If the company is insolvent, the decision may sit with an assignee, not the board. See selling company data in an ABC.
• Operating companies can sell too: you do not need to be shutting down to license records.

Who buys company data, and who helps you sell it

Buyers, intermediaries and what deals have paid:

• Who buys company data for AI training?
• Brokers, marketplaces and advisors compared
• AI data buyers compared
• Can your company license its operational data?
• What AI buyers pay: 2026 study
• AI data licensing deals tracker
• How much do AI companies pay for data?
• RL environments and why labs buy company data
• Selling company data to hedge funds
• Where to sell data to hedge funds, compared
• RL environment companies and deals tracker

Next step

Closing or not, start with a description of what you have: systems, years and volume. Origin can tell you what buyers would likely pay for it and who fits. See selling company data after closing.

Origin Data Partners works with companies that own data and helps get it bought. We are independent of the services on this page, and a buyer may pay us when a deal closes (how Origin is paid). See what your data is worth.