Trace, the data division of Ink and Pixel
Your company's records are worth money. We find the buyer.
AI research labs pay for the records real companies produce: support tickets, project boards, email threads, CRM pipelines, invoices, code. They use them to teach models how work actually happens. We scope what you have, strip out the names, paper the deal and get you paid.
What could your records be worth?
$9,000/$22,500
- Your chat, email, tickets and boards together show whole loops of work. Buyers pay more for that.
- Your sector carries a premium: the records are rarer and harder to replace.
Indicative, from public deals. The real number depends on what is in the data, its quality and the buyer. It is never an offer.
How it works
- 01
A twenty-minute call
- You
- You tell us which systems you ran, for how long, and who can sign.
- We
- We tell you honestly whether there is a buyer for records like yours, and roughly what they pay.
- 02
An NDA and a data inventory
- You
- You sign an NDA and list what you have. No exports yet.
- We
- We check the lawful basis for every source before anything moves. If something cannot be sold, we say so.
- 03
Anonymisation in your country
- You
- You give read-only access or exports.
- We
- Names, identifiers and free text that could point to a person are removed before anything leaves the country. We sign a statement of method.
- 04
A signed agreement, then payment
- You
- You sign the seller mandate and the transfer terms.
- We
- The buyer accepts the package. You are paid under the agreement. Originals are deleted after processing.
What counts
Team chat (Slack, Teams)
Years of how your team decided things, in their own words.
Email (Gmail, Outlook)
The threads around deals, hires, suppliers and problems.
CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive)
Pipelines, notes, lost and won deals, with the reasons.
Support desk (Zendesk, Freshdesk)
Real customer problems and how they were solved.
Project boards (Jira, Asana, Trello)
Tasks, bugs and projects from start to finish.
Accounting (QuickBooks, Xero, Sage)
Invoices, bills and the rhythm of a real business.
Code (GitHub, GitLab)
Working code with its history and its review comments.
Documents (Drive, SharePoint, Notion)
Proposals, contracts, procedures and plans.
Bundles are worth more than parts. The boards, the emails and the tickets around them show a whole loop of work.
Who this is for
A good fit
- Companies that are closing, restructuring or selling.
- Five or more years of records in real systems.
- One person who can sign: a founder, a director or a liquidator.
- Based in Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, elsewhere in Africa, or anywhere else.
Not a fit
- Records that belong to your clients, such as an outsourcer's client data.
- Companies already struck off the register with nobody left to sign.
- Data that still identifies people and cannot be anonymised.
- Anyone who needs a payment date before the buyer has accepted.
How we are paid
- No upfront cost. Not for the call, not for the inventory, not for the anonymisation.
- A share only when you are paid. If the buyer does not accept, you owe nothing.
- The share is fixed in writing before anything moves.
Questions people ask
Who buys the data?
AI research labs and the teams that build training environments for them. We never name a buyer on this site, and a buyer never learns who you are before an agreement is signed.
What do you actually take?
Exports or read-only access to the systems you choose: chat, email, CRM, support desk, project boards, accounting, code, documents. Only what is listed in the inventory you signed.
Does my customers' data leave the country?
No. Names, contact details, account numbers and any free text that could point to a person are removed in your country, before anything moves. What leaves is a record of how work was done, not of who the people were.
What about my staff's messages?
The same rule. Staff names and identifiers are removed. If a message cannot be made anonymous, it is left out. In some countries we also ask for a short notice to staff; we tell you on the call.
Who signs if the company is closing?
Whoever still controls the company: a director while it is in wind-down, or the liquidator once one is appointed. A company that has already been struck off cannot sign, which is why the call happens before dissolution.
How long does it take?
In the public deals we know of, two to six weeks from the first call to the buyer's acceptance. We do not promise a date. Payment follows acceptance under the agreement.
Where do the numbers on this page come from?
From public deals. A US marketplace for closing companies reported about $10,000 per company on average across roughly 100 deals, with a few much larger. Individual deals in the hundreds of thousands have been reported for older companies with complete records. Our range tool is calibrated on those and is indicative only.
What do you need from me on the call?
Twenty minutes, the list of systems you ran, roughly how long and how many people, and the name of the person who can sign. No exports, no access, nothing to prepare.
Book twenty minutes
Pick a day and a window. We confirm the exact time by email. The call is a conversation, not a pitch: we tell you honestly whether there is a buyer for records like yours.