There are four ways to license company records to an AI lab, and each one pays its middleman differently. This guide explains the four routes, who pays whom, what each costs you and what a seller-side advisor should do. For a range on your own records, get a confidential estimate.
What are the four routes?
Go direct to a buyer
Apply to a program such as micro1, Handshake AI, Mode or Turing. Most charge the seller nothing. Mode says it buys directly and charges no broker fee (Mode, observed Oct 16, 2026). You get one buyer’s offer on that buyer’s terms.
List on a marketplace
Platforms such as HUD DataVendor and Opendatabay let you list and sell to many buyers. They take a cut. HUD keeps 20% on bank withdrawals, and Opendatabay sellers keep 70% to 95% of each sale (Who Sells Data, Oct 14, 2026).
Use an intermediary paid by the buyer side
Pewter runs the sale for the owner at no cost to the owner. Its fee is paid by the licensing partner when a deal closes (Pewter, observed Oct 16, 2026). Grepped packages data and lists it to labs, and does not publish its take rate.
Use a seller-side advisor
The advisor’s job is to get you the best terms from whichever buyer offers them. Some charge you a fee. Others, including Marin Data, cost you nothing and are paid referral fees by buyers.
Who pays the people in the middle?
Most of the money flowing to middlemen today comes from buyers. These are published referral bounties as of October 2026:
| Buyer | Referral payment | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Grepped | 10% of owner payment, capped at $100K | Grepped terms, Oct 13, 2026 |
| Mode | 6% of the deal or $50K, whichever is greater | Who Sells Data, Oct 8, 2026 |
| micro1 | Up to $50K, or 7.5% where no amount is listed | Who Sells Data, Oct 14, 2026 |
| Scale AI | Up to $50K | Scale |
| The General Data Company | Up to $50K | Who Sells Data |
| Nyne AI | Up to $20K | Who Sells Data |
| Handshake AI | $10K | Who Sells Data |
| Turing | Up to $10K | Turing |
Buyer bounties run from 6% to 10% where they are stated as percentages. Marketplace takes run from 5% to 30%. Comparison sites can be paid this way too. Data Licensing Report discloses that its named author earns commission on some Telegraph Lab deals (Data Licensing Report, Oct 14, 2026).
Why does it matter who pays?
Because the payer shapes the advice. A referrer paid by one buyer earns nothing if you sign with another. Buyers’ own terms reflect this. Grepped’s referral terms forbid referrers from presenting themselves as Grepped’s employee or agent (clause 5.4). They also bar referrers from helping a referred owner license through anyone else for 12 months after the terms end (clause 5.5). That is a reasonable term for Grepped. It also means a Grepped referrer cannot shop your records around.
An advisor you pay has an incentive tied to the size of your deal. One paid by buyers, as Marin Data is, should say so up front.
What should a seller-side advisor do?
At Marin Data, the work covers:
- Map what you have. Systems, date ranges, volume and how the records connect.
- Check rights. Ownership, vendor terms, customer contracts and employee notice. Flag where you need counsel.
- Write a one-page brief. A standard summary buyers can price without seeing data.
- Take it to several buyers. Matched to each buyer’s floors on headcount, years and geography.
- Compare offers side by side. Price, exclusivity, payment timing, de-identification and deletion.
- Negotiate. For you, against every buyer.
- Support the contract. Help your counsel with the business terms.
It does not include legal advice. It does not include de-identification either, because the buyer does that, and we never hold your raw data.
What does Marin Data charge?
Nothing up front, and nothing at all if no deal closes. Marin Data is paid by the AI lab, never out of your payment, and you choose which buyer to sign with.
When is an advisor worth it?
When more than one buyer is likely to want your records and the terms are worth negotiating. Published bands run from about $10K to $5M per license (our market index). Exclusivity, payment timing and deletion terms vary widely between buyers. An advisor earns its fee when it moves the price or the terms by more than the fee. One data broker, Ryan Lock, said on the NGMI podcast in October 2026 that his co-founder negotiated a first offer up about four times. That is one unverified account, and most gains will be smaller.
It is not worth it when your records are likely to fetch a small amount from a single buyer. A small startup codebase that might fetch about $25,000, as one did according to MIT Technology Review on Oct 13, 2026, is often simpler to take direct or through a wind-down platform.
Questions to ask any advisor or intermediary
- Who pays you, and how much?
- Will you take my records to buyers that do not pay you?
- Will you disclose and credit any payment from a buyer?
- Do you ever take possession of raw data?
- Is your fee paid before or after the buyer pays me?
Sources
- NGMI podcast, interview with data broker Ryan Lock, Oct 16, 2026 (his figures are his own and unverified)
- Who Sells Data, buying programs, observed Oct 14, 2026
- Grepped referral terms, effective Oct 13, 2026
- Mode, Pewter, Scale AI, Turing Project Lazarus, observed Oct 16, 2026
- Data Licensing Report, how we make money, updated Oct 14, 2026
- MIT Technology Review, AI labs are buying data from dead startups, Oct 13, 2026