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Companies that buy data: 28 that pay for business data in 2026

The companies that buy data from businesses today are mostly AI data companies such as micro1, Polyshares, Mode, Mercor and Scale AI, which license your company's records and supply the AI labs. Firms like Ventra and Pewter connect owners to them, SimpleClosure and Sunset buy from closed startups, and Google bid $10M for Spirit Airlines' archive in court.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

By Lead analyst (to be named) · reviewed by Reviewing editor (to be named) · published 2 Nov 2026 · updated 2 Nov 2026

AI data companies that pay businesses for their records

These are the companies an operating business usually signs with. They license a copy of your email, chat, files and system records, strip out names and personal details, and supply the result to AI labs. Published ranges for a whole company mostly run $100K to $2M, as the buyers' own figures.11,12,13

  1. micro1: has committed $1B over 12 months to buying company data, and takes companies with 30+ employees.1,14
  2. Polyshares: licenses your data itself rather than brokering it, and says $100K-$2M+ is typical.2,12
  3. Mode: buys an agreed copy of your records directly with no broker fee, and says $100K-$5M.3,15
  4. Mercor: licenses and packages your data from Slack, Gmail, Salesforce and 100+ other tools, and prices on volume and depth.4,16
  5. Scale AI: takes records from data warehouses, chat, email, documents and work tools like Jira and Salesforce.5
  6. Surge AI: buys company archives to build training environments for AI agents.17
  7. Troveo: licenses on a revenue share and names no minimum headcount.18,19
  8. Nyne: takes QuickBooks, Salesforce, HubSpot and Jira records from US firms with 20+ W-2 staff, and says deals are typically $100K or more.20,21,22
  9. Centific: wants records of how staff decide and handle exceptions in finance, sales and other workflows.23
  10. Appen: takes process documents, decision and escalation records, and systems such as ERP, contracts and HR.24
  11. Labelbox Prism: takes work documents and records from systems like Salesforce, Jira, Slack, SAP and CAD.25
  12. SuperAnnotate: takes everyday messages, runbooks, tickets and approvals, and screen recordings of multi-step tasks.26
  13. Collinear: takes private code repositories, tickets and business app history from Slack, Gmail, HubSpot and others.27
  14. Replay: takes historical operating data, from code and decision threads to financial records and sales conversations.28
  15. The General Data Company: licenses industrial companies' operating records to AI labs and manufacturers.29

Firms that connect you to buyers

Most of the ads owners see come from this group. They don't keep your data, they bring it to one or more buyers and are paid when a deal closes, usually by the buyer.30,31

  1. Ventra: takes your company to several AI labs and their data partners and shows you the best offer, which it says comes in 3 to 7 days.6,13
  2. Pewter: its licensing partner makes the offer and pays you, for US firms with 20+ staff, operating or closed.7,32
  3. Grepped: lists your data on its own marketplace, packages it and sells it to AI labs, with no headcount minimum stated.33,34
  4. Endless: says the labs pay it, and offers a fixed sum agreed before anything is shared.35,36
  5. Cognor Labs: calls itself an independent referral partner paid by the data partner.37
  6. Jottings: takes a success fee of typically 20-30% from the owner's payout.38

Companies that buy data from closed businesses

A company that has shut down sells to a different set of buyers, and usually for less, because the records have stopped growing.8

  1. SimpleClosure: over 150 data deals for wound-down startups, typically $10K-$100K each.8
  2. Sunset: buys a closed startup's dataset outright, then licenses it to AI labs.9
  3. Hilco: the liquidation firm sells codebases, workflow data and customer records as company assets.39

AI labs that buy directly

The labs rarely buy from a business directly, and their published deals are mostly with big publishers. The exception is Spirit Airlines: Google won the bankruptcy auction for its internal archive at $10.0M in August 2026, and the court hearing on the sale is set for 2026-11-06.10,40,41

  1. Google: won the Spirit Airlines data auction at $10.0M, with Mercor as the alternate bidder at $7.5M and micro1 filing a later $12.5M bid.10,42

Data marketplaces

Marketplaces list datasets for buyers to find and take a commission, and some don't check that a seller has the right to sell.43,44

  1. Datarade: takes a 30%, 20% or 15% commission depending on the seller's plan.43
  2. FileYield: charges sellers 8% and buyers 6%, and doesn't verify a seller's rights.45,44
  3. Protege: lists healthcare, video, engineering, manufacturing and other data, and carries hc1's lab results.46,47

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Real money is moving: micro1 alone has committed $1B to buying company data.1
  • Buyers compete for good archives, as micro1's bid above Google's for Spirit's data showed.42
  • There is a route for most situations, from operating firms to closed startups.14,8

Cons

  • Most of the companies advertising are go-betweens, not the buyer that pays.30
  • Sellers often can't see which AI lab ends up with their data.48
  • Most buyers want 20 to 30 or more staff and several years of records.14,21,32

What it means for a business like yours

If your business has 20 or more people and a few years of email, chat and files, the AI data companies in the first group are the ones that pay. Our quiz shows which of the buyers we work with take a company your size, and introduces you.14,32,21

If you meant companies that buy personal data about consumers, those are data brokers, a different market. This page covers companies that pay businesses for their own records.30

Should your business get in now?

Businesses are already licensing their records: micro1 has committed $1B over 12 months to buying company data, and at least 18 firms started advertising for it between September and mid-October 2026.1,30 Our view, not a promise: the money will not be around forever, because prices tend to come down as more businesses sell.1,49 Take the quiz to see which firms fit your business.

Plus a free Seller's Guide when you finish.

Take the quizWho the brokerages are

We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. How we earn.

FAQ

Questions, answered with sources

  • AI data companies such as micro1, Polyshares, Mode, Mercor and Scale AI license business records for AI training. Ventra and Pewter connect owners to buyers, and SimpleClosure and Sunset buy from closed startups.1,2,3,4,5,6,8

  • No buyer publishes comparable deals. Mode says $100K-$5M, micro1 states tiers up to $2M+, and Polyshares says $100K-$2M+, each as its own figure.15,50,12

  • Rarely from businesses directly. Google bid $10M for Spirit Airlines' archive in bankruptcy, and OpenAI's published deals are with publishers like News Corp.10,41

  • Mostly the records of how a business runs: email, Slack or Teams, shared files, CRM and support tickets, accounting and code. A license is a copy, so you keep using your own systems.16,5,3

  • Some do. Troveo and Grepped state no minimum headcount, while most others want 20 to 30 or more staff.19,34,14

  • SimpleClosure, Sunset and Hilco buy from closed companies, and SimpleClosure's deals typically run $10K-$100K. micro1 also has a program for companies no longer operating that had 30+ staff.8,9,39,51

  • Not always. A buyer licenses and pays for your data, while a broker introduces you to a buyer and is usually paid by it.2,31

  • Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.

Before you sign

Questions to talk through with your buyer

Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.

Questions for this kind of business

  • How do CCPA, GDPR, UK GDPR and state privacy laws apply, and is de-identified data still personal information?
  • Do customer, supplier or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?

Questions for any buyer

  • Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
  • Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
  • Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
  • How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
  • What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
  • Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
  • Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?

What changed since we first published

  • 2 Nov 2026 First published.

How this page was made: drafted with AI help from the sources below, each checked; a buyer's claims about itself are its own. Updated November 2026. How we rank.

Sources (51)

  1. 1.The Next Web, published 9 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  2. 2.Polyshares data licensing page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  3. 3.Mode company data site. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  4. 4.Mercor Data page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  5. 5.Scale AI data partnership page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  6. 6.Ventra company data page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  7. 7.Pewter website. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  8. 8.Forbes, published 16 Apr 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  9. 9.Sunset blog, published 14 Apr 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  10. 10.Chapter11Cases (Stretto) docket report on the Spirit data sale, published 13 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  11. 11.micro1 company referral page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  12. 12.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  13. 13.Ventra company data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  14. 14.micro1 company referral page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  15. 15.Mode company data site. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  16. 16.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  17. 17.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  18. 18.Troveo, published 11 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  19. 19.Troveo business data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  20. 20.Nyne sell-company-data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  21. 21.Nyne sell-company-data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  22. 22.Nyne sell-company-data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  23. 23.Centific Enterprise Data page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  24. 24.Appen Enterprise Data page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  25. 25.Labelbox Prism homepage. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  26. 26.SuperAnnotate data partnerships page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  27. 27.Collinear data acquisition page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  28. 28.Replay homepage. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  29. 29.The General Data Company data partnerships page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  30. 30.Meta Ad Library (our review). Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  31. 31.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  32. 32.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  33. 33.Grepped website. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  34. 34.Grepped marketplace. Accessed 31 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  35. 35.Endless website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  36. 36.Endless website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  37. 37.Cognor Labs website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  38. 38.Jottings how we get paid page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  39. 39.Hilco Global intangible assets page, published 21 Jul 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  40. 40.Skift, published 12 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  41. 41.Quartz. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  42. 42.Chapter11Cases (Stretto) docket report on the Spirit data sale, published 13 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  43. 43.Datarade data providers page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  44. 44.FileYield terms, published 11 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  45. 45.FileYield data buyers page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  46. 46.Protege about page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  47. 47.hc1 press release, published 12 Feb 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  48. 48.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  49. 49.TechCrunch, published 16 Sep 2025. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  50. 50.micro1 data partnerships page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  51. 51.micro1 company referral page. Accessed 30 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.