Wind-down services such as SimpleClosure AssetHub buy or broker code and workspace data from shut-down startups, and micro1 runs a Defunct Data Partnerships track. The one reported price is roughly $25,000 for a small company's codebase. Settle who holds the IP before you talk price.
Shutting a company down used to mean the code went to an archive bucket and stayed there. Now it can be an asset with buyers. AI labs want real engineering history, and a startup that spent four years arguing in pull requests has exactly that. The market is new and small, the prices are modest, and the paperwork matters more than the price.
Who buys code from a company that has shut down?
Two programs with published pages name wound-down companies directly.
| Program | What its page lists | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| SimpleClosure AssetHub | Repos and their docs and tests; Slack, Drive, mail, Notion and Figma exports; IP; domains | None posted |
| micro1 | A track for defunct companies, beside its live-company tiers | None posted for this track |
Both run referral schemes, meaning either one might pay us after signing a company we sent its way; the table would read the same regardless. We are independent of both, and neither endorses this page.
SimpleClosure is a wind-down service first. AssetHub is the arm that turns leftover repos and workspace exports into money, with a PII pass run per dataset before any license. Neither fees nor prices appear on its page.
What has a dead startup’s code actually fetched?
One public data point. In a 2026-10-13 piece, MIT Technology Review described a crypto founder clearing about $25,000 for his closed startup’s code, through a sale SimpleClosure arranged.
That is a small number next to the headline ranges for operating companies, which start at $100K on micro1’s page. The gap makes sense: those ranges are for company-wide data partnerships with headcount floors, ongoing participation and far more than code. A finished product with no team behind it is a one-off asset.
At the far end sits a Reuters story from 2026-08-17: Google offered $10 million for Spirit’s archive of employee email, Teams threads, sheets and calendars, outbidding Mercor’s $7.5 million, with a judge yet to approve. That was an airline’s archive, not a startup’s repos. It shows workspace data can carry a price of its own; it says nothing about what yours will fetch.
Who can actually sign?
This is where most wound-down sales stall. The founders may not be the people with authority.
- The company itself, if it still exists and has not transferred its assets.
- A secured lender. Venture debt is often secured on all assets, IP included, so the lender may have to consent or may be owed the proceeds.
- An assignee for the benefit of creditors. In an ABC the assignee takes title to the assets and runs the sale.
- An acquirer. If you sold part of the business, read the purchase agreement: the code may have gone with it.
- The board and investors, where the financing documents require approval to sell material assets.
Find the answer before you talk to any buyer. It changes who is in the room.
What should come out before anyone looks?
The cleanup list is the same as for a running company, with one difference: nobody will be around to clean up a mistake afterward.
- Secrets. Rotate every key that was ever committed, even if the service is dead, then scrub history.
- Customer data. Fixtures, seed files, logs and issue threads quoting customers.
- Third-party code. Open-source dependencies and vendored libraries keep their licenses. See open source and licensing.
- Client work. Code built for a client under an MSA usually belongs to the client.
- Private messages. In Slack and email exports, direct messages and anything employees were told would stay internal need the most care.
Code alone, or code plus workspace?
SimpleClosure lists both, and they are different kinds of asset. Code is mostly the company’s own expression, with clear ownership once you remove third-party material. Workspace data is mostly people talking to each other. It carries much more personal data, and whether former employees can be identified in it is the question buyers will ask first.
If you sell both, expect the workspace data to take longer to clear, and to need more removed.
A rough order of work
- Ask your wind-down lawyer who holds the IP and who must approve a sale.
- Inventory: repos, years, contributors, contractor agreements, client code.
- Clean up secrets, customer data and third-party code.
- Talk to buyers whose published rules you meet.
- Have your lawyer read the agreement, license or assignment, before signing.
Undecided whether to sell code to AI in the first place? The homepage sets every buyer with posted terms side by side. This is general information, not legal advice.
A dead company’s code will not fetch what a live company’s data does, but it costs nothing to store and a little effort to clear, and that is usually enough to make the sale worth doing.