Updated October 2026
For PE roll-ups: licensing data across portfolio companies
Your platform buys accounting firms, dental offices, agencies or HVAC shops one at a time, and with each add-on it inherits years of email, files and job records. AI companies now pay to license a copy of records like these, and a platform that standardized a dozen add-ons can be a far bigger seller than any one of them. License My Data even names holding groups and portfolios among the sellers it works with.1,2
Why size changes
Add-ons that miss the floor alone can clear it together
Buyers set floors per company, and most want 20 to 30 or more people. A two-dentist office or a five-person CPA practice falls short on its own, while a platform that combined a dozen of them is a different seller. Ask each buyer whether it treats the platform as one company. A few state no minimum, and Mode takes accounting firms from 10 people, so even single add-ons can sometimes fit.3,4,5,6,7
Industry rules differ by buyer too: some cannot take legal, healthcare, financial services or accounting companies right now, while others name healthcare administration and financial services among the fields they want. The quiz asks your sector and size and introduces you to the buyers that take a platform like yours.8,9,10
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| Who Mode takes | Most businesses or nonprofits need 20+ full-time US office employees; accounting firms 10+ and law firms 6+; several years of records they own |
| Industries Ventra excludes | Cannot take legal, healthcare, financial services or accounting companies right now |
| Who Grepped takes | No headcount minimum stated; its form lists industries from accounting, construction and legal to logistics, manufacturing and software |
What platforms have
Standardised work across many locations
Roll-ups standardize: one playbook, one CRM, one ticketing system, repeated across locations. That is close to what micro1 says it looks for, well defined workflows that staff repeat, and what it asks for: SOPs and playbooks, knowledge bases, templates and task histories. The integration manual written for the fifth add-on is exactly that kind of record, so put it on the list.2,11
Trades platforms have a data point of their own: The Information headlined data labeling startups paying HVAC companies $150,000 for data, though we could not confirm whether that was a license or labeling work, and Polyshares lists a general contractor it paid $300,000.12,13
Terms at portfolio scale
Exclusivity and exit
A sponsor will sell the platform eventually, and the next buyer's diligence will ask about any license. Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz writes that a prior data sale comes up in diligence with the review and exclusions documented. Exclusivity is the term to settle, and it varies, from exclusive by default to time-limited. Exclusive licenses can command a premium, while non-exclusive ones can be sold again, which matters if the platform may license the same archive twice.14,15,16
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
The Information headlined HVAC companies being paid $150,000; it is paywalled and the nature of the payment is unconfirmed.12
Expect so. Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz writes that a prior data sale comes up in diligence.14
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
- Do the purchase agreements for each add-on transfer its archive to the platform?
- Do professional rules in our sector (accounting, dental, insurance) limit pooling records across practices?
- Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
- How does a license affect a sale of the business: reps and warranties, change of control, earnouts, exclusivity?
- What are the trustee's, assignee's, receiver's or board's duties, and who receives the proceeds?
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?