What is SimpleClosure AssetHub?

AssetHub is the asset sales arm of SimpleClosure, a startup wind-down service. It helps companies sell or license two kinds of asset to vetted AI buyers: SourceCode (codebases, repos, docs, tests) and WorkspaceData (communications, documents, designs, tickets and workflows across Slack, Google Drive, email, Notion and Figma). Operating companies can use it too, SimpleClosure says.

Is SimpleClosure AssetHub legit?

MIT Technology Review reported on October 13, 2026 that AssetHub has handled over 150 deals and that 47% of SimpleClosure deals now include code or data sales. It quoted a founder who netted about $25,000 for a code base. SimpleClosure doesn't publish its success fee percentage, buyer names or payment timing, so ask for those in writing.

How much do AI companies pay for startup data?

SimpleClosure says it has facilitated deals "in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars" for unique assets. MIT Technology Review's example founder netted about $25,000 for a code base, with a pending amount of about $15,000 for workspace data. SimpleClosure told Forbes its test version recovered $1 million across nearly 100 deals (Upstarts Media).

What companies buy data for AI training?

On SimpleClosure's AssetHub, buyers are "AI foundation labs, reinforcement learning environment builders, and other technology companies," per its page; MIT Technology Review adds mature tech companies building their own models. SimpleClosure doesn't name them. Other company data programs include micro1, Scale AI, Mercor, Handshake AI, Labelbox Prism, Polyshares, Endless Data and Troveo.

SimpleClosure Asset Hub Review 2026: Code and Workspace Data

How SimpleClosure AssetHub packages source code and Slack, Drive, email, Notion and Figma data for AI buyers, and what it excludes, checked October 21, 2026

SimpleClosure AssetHub sells or licenses two kinds of asset: SourceCode (repos, docs, tests) and WorkspaceData (Slack, Google Drive, email, Notion, Figma, tickets and workflows). SimpleClosure says sensitive employee, compensation and health data is excluded and every dataset is processed for PII before it’s licensed. It takes an unpublished percentage only if assets sell.

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SimpleClosure is a startup shutdown service, and AssetHub is where it helps founders sell what’s left: code and the record of how the team worked. It isn’t limited to closures. SimpleClosure says “companies that are still operating can explore licensing opportunities while continuing to use the underlying assets,” and sellers can license or sell outright. For buyers that focus on operating companies, see companies that buy business data for AI.

What SimpleClosure AssetHub takes

SimpleClosure’s AssetHub page names two asset types and the systems behind them. Unlike most programs covered here, it treats source code as an asset type of its own.

Asset or system	Named by SimpleClosure	What SimpleClosure says is excluded or processed
Source code: codebases, repositories, documentation, tests	Yes	Processed for PII before licensing
Slack	Yes (WorkspaceData)	Same
Google Drive	Yes	Same
Email	Yes	Same
Notion	Yes	Same
Figma	Yes	Same
Tickets and workflows	Yes	Same
Employee, compensation and health information	Excluded	“Sensitive employee, compensation, health, and other personal information is excluded”
CRM, call recordings, HR systems	Not published	Not published

The page says buyers want “real-world work product.” It doesn’t list CRM records, call recordings or finance systems.

How the data gets out of your systems

AssetHub starts lighter than most programs. You fill in a short form or connect GitHub, and SimpleClosure says most founders get an initial viability assessment “within days or even hours.” The full process runs like this.

Submit. Describe your assets in a short form, or connect GitHub.
Assessment. SimpleClosure reviews the assets for viability and value.
Buyer matching. Assets are matched to its vetted buyer network.
Preparation. “Every dataset is processed for PII before it is licensed to a buyer,” and data “is prepared before it reaches AI training.”
Sale or license. The deal closes as a sale or a license, and SimpleClosure takes its percentage only if the assets sell or license.

SimpleClosure doesn’t say on its AssetHub page where PII processing runs (inside your environment or after transfer) or who performs it. It doesn’t publish sample review rights either. Its own October 1, 2026 blog post is a useful ops checklist here: know who scrubs the data and when, and be careful with anyone who wants a full export before making a meaningful offer.

Privacy and security controls

These are SimpleClosure’s own claims from its AssetHub page and blog, read October 21, 2026.

Control	What SimpleClosure says	Ask for in writing
PII processing	Every dataset processed for PII before licensing	Method, tooling, and where it runs
Sensitive categories	Employee, compensation, health and other personal information excluded	The full exclusion list and how it’s enforced in Slack and email
Buyer vetting	“A vetted network of strategic buyers”	The buyer’s name, and who receives the files
GitHub connection	Connect GitHub to start	Scope of access granted and when it’s revoked
Sample review	Not published	A right to review the prepared dataset before release
Security certifications	Not published	A SOC 2 report or equivalent
Retention and deletion	Not published	Retention period, deletion certificate and the position on trained models
End use	Not published	Permitted use and resale limits in the buyer agreement

MIT Technology Review (October 13, 2026) reported that founders have little to no visibility into who buys the data and what they plan to do with it. That’s the main gap for an ops lead: the buyer chain.

Commercial terms in brief

Read October 21, 2026.

Term	What SimpleClosure or press says
Stated value	Deals “in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars” for unique assets (SimpleClosure)
Example	About $25,000 for one code base, plus about $15,000 pending for workspace data (MIT Technology Review)
Fee to seller	No upfront cost; a percentage only on a successful sale or license; percentage not published
Payment timing	Not published
Exclusivity	Not published
Volume	Over 150 deals; expects to return over $10 million to startups by end of 2026 (MIT Technology Review)

Upstarts Media (September 3, 2026) reported 350+ companies listed on AssetHub since April and prospective buyers growing 9x. SimpleClosure told Forbes its test version recovered $1 million across nearly 100 deals in the prior year, which averages about $10,000 per deal (our arithmetic from those figures). MIT Technology Review also noted that in wind-downs, proceeds typically flow to senior creditors and investors, not employees.

What data you can and can’t license

SimpleClosure’s own blog lists the problem categories: personal and customer information, third-party material you may not have the right to transfer (including licensed data and open-source code with its own terms), and live credentials such as API keys buried in code, tickets and attachments. It adds that sellers should know who scrubs the data and when.

Usually firm-owned and licensable once scrubbed	Usually not yours to license, or high risk
Proprietary code your team wrote	Open-source components with their own license terms
Internal specs, Notion docs and Figma files for your own product	Client deliverables and client files under NDA
Jira or Linear tickets about your own product	Tickets and attachments containing live credentials
Internal Slack about how work got done, de-identified	Client Slack Connect channels and DMs on HR or health matters
Your own process docs and templates	Customer records, payment data and contact-level CRM data

General rules apply. CCPA/CPRA has covered employee and B2B contact data since January 1, 2023, and GDPR covers EU and UK people. NLRA Section 7 protects employee discussions of pay and conditions. Slack’s API terms (August 2025) bar bulk export and LLM training via the API, per Hunton, and Google Workspace API policies restrict training non-personalized models.

Risks for the ops team

Buyer opacity. Buyers aren’t named publicly, and MIT Technology Review says founders have little visibility into end use.
Credentials in exports. Code, tickets and attachments can contain live keys, per SimpleClosure’s own blog. Rotate them regardless of scrubbing.
Sale vs license. AssetHub supports outright sales. An outright sale of code is a different decision from a license, so confirm which one an offer is.
Employee data. Workspace data is mostly employees’ messages and files, and CCPA/CPRA has covered employee data since January 1, 2023. MIT Technology Review also notes that wind-down proceeds typically go to senior creditors and investors, not the employees whose work is in the record.
Deletion vs trained models. Deletion terms aren’t published, and deleting data doesn’t untrain models.
Unknown fee. The success percentage isn’t published, so the net figure isn’t known until the offer.
Inflated offers elsewhere. SimpleClosure’s blog warns about new buyers advertising $1 million to $5 million. Business Insider (October 13, 2026) reported that 48-hour “exploding offers” are common across this market; it didn’t attribute them to SimpleClosure.

Pre-export checklist

Decide whether you’re licensing or selling each asset before you submit.
Scope the GitHub access you grant to the repositories in play, and revoke it after review.
Scan repositories, tickets and attachments for API keys and tokens, and rotate any you find.
Remove open-source code with its own terms and any third-party licensed data from scope.
Exclude HR, payroll, health and client folders from the WorkspaceData export.
Ask who performs PII processing, where it runs and when, in writing.
Request the buyer’s name, who receives the files and who funds the purchase.
Get the success fee percentage, payment date and deletion terms into the agreement.

Deciding whether to sell at all? onfolio.com’s SimpleClosure AssetHub review covers it from the owner’s side: whether it’s legit, what you might get and what can go wrong.

Sources

SimpleClosure AssetHub product page, read October 21, 2026: https://simpleclosure.com/product/assethub/
SimpleClosure, “How Real Are Those Million-Dollar Data Offers?”, October 1, 2026: https://simpleclosure.com/blog/guides/how-real-are-those-million-dollar-data-offers/
MIT Technology Review, “AI labs are buying data from dead startups to train their models,” October 13, 2026: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/10/13/1145755/ai-labs-buying-data-from-dead-startups-to-train-models/
Upstarts Media, interview with SimpleClosure CEO Dori Yona on AssetHub data, September 3, 2026: https://www.upstartsmedia.com/p/exclusive-simpleclosure-data-what-ai-labs-buy
Business Insider, “AI labs are fueling a wild market for your Slack DMs,” October 13, 2026: https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-training-employee-data-emails-slack-dms-2026-10
Hunton on Slack API terms, August 2025

SimpleClosure’s AssetHub page

FAQ

What is SimpleClosure AssetHub?: AssetHub is the asset sales arm of SimpleClosure, a startup wind-down service. It helps companies sell or license two kinds of asset to vetted AI buyers: SourceCode (codebases, repos, docs, tests) and WorkspaceData (communications, documents, designs, tickets and workflows across Slack, Google Drive, email, Notion and Figma). Operating companies can use it too, SimpleClosure says.
Is SimpleClosure AssetHub legit?: MIT Technology Review reported on October 13, 2026 that AssetHub has handled over 150 deals and that 47% of SimpleClosure deals now include code or data sales. It quoted a founder who netted about $25,000 for a code base. SimpleClosure doesn't publish its success fee percentage, buyer names or payment timing, so ask for those in writing.
How much do AI companies pay for startup data?: SimpleClosure says it has facilitated deals "in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars" for unique assets. MIT Technology Review's example founder netted about $25,000 for a code base, with a pending amount of about $15,000 for workspace data. SimpleClosure told Forbes its test version recovered $1 million across nearly 100 deals (Upstarts Media).
What companies buy data for AI training?: On SimpleClosure's AssetHub, buyers are "AI foundation labs, reinforcement learning environment builders, and other technology companies," per its page; MIT Technology Review adds mature tech companies building their own models. SimpleClosure doesn't name them. Other company data programs include micro1, Scale AI, Mercor, Handshake AI, Labelbox Prism, Polyshares, Endless Data and Troveo.