We buy business records from closed and insolvent UK companies
If a company has stopped trading or is in administration or liquidation, we can buy a copy of its emails, quotes and project files. In an insolvency, what we pay is an extra realisation for the estate.
- You sign As administrator or liquidator, you sign the agreement, and nothing is copied before then.
- Paid only to the estate One payment, into the account you nominate, so you can close the case without waiting for us.
- You keep the keys The copy is encrypted. We get the key to the sample first, and the key to the rest only once we've paid.
- Free to walk away Until you approve the sample, you can pull out at no cost.
How a sale runs
A free first look
You or your case manager can fill in our five-question form or email us. In half an hour on the phone, we'll tell you whether any of the records could sell.
Papers for your file
If something could sell, you get the papers below before you commit to anything. Until you sign, you're free to get other offers.
An IT firm makes the copy
Once the agreement is signed, an IT firm of your choosing makes an encrypted copy in two parts, a small sample and the rest, and we pay its costs. We never have access to the company's systems.
We pay once you approve the sample
We prepare the sample and you check it. Once you approve it, we pay by the date in the agreement and you release the key to the rest. No prospective buyer sees the sample before you've approved it.
What goes in your file
- How we worked out the price We use the same formula in every insolvency. It turns on the volume of records, the years covered, their completeness and the kind of work they show.
- A draft agreement It sets out what you're selling, what's left out, what it may be used for and the price, for you or your solicitors to check.
- How we'll handle data protection We set out who is the controller at each step and the lawful basis each party relies on. The sale agreement on its own isn't a lawful basis. Whether yours holds up is for you to judge; we don't give legal advice.
- Any connection to the company We'll state in writing whether we're connected to the company, its shareholders or its directors.
Whether the sale needs anyone's sanction is your call.
The main terms in an insolvency
- We buy as is, and never look to you personally We won't ask for warranties, not even about rights in the records, which is usual in insolvency sales. Any claim we might have is against the company alone.
- Finding a buyer is our risk Once you've approved the sample, the price is owed whether or not we find one. In return, the company won't sell copies to any other data buyer. You can still sell the business, and whoever buys it isn't bound by this.
- What you're selling Only a copy: the originals stay with the company. We never take HR files, job applications or payroll; health or other special category data; employees' private emails and chats; records under a professional duty of confidentiality; or material others hold rights in. You can leave out anything else, such as data a buyer of the business should have to itself, or anything bearing on claims you're pursuing.
- Who gets the data, and in what form Before we pass anything on, we replace the names and contact details of people and companies with codes. We license what we prepare to companies that develop or test AI and to data providers working for them, sometimes to more than one. None of them gets the raw data or the key to the codes. Each must keep to the agreed purpose, mustn't try to identify anyone, and may pass the data on only as the agreement allows, to someone who takes on the same duties. Nothing goes outside the UK and EEA unless data protection law allows the transfer. We delete the raw data once we've prepared it.
- If you pull out, or we pay late If we miss the payment date, you can end the agreement. Either way, we delete everything we hold, including the encrypted remainder, and confirm it in writing. Anyone who has seen the sample must delete it too.
- No cost to the company We're paid by the companies that license what we buy, never by you or the company. Nobody on your side receives a commission or other benefit from us.
- We won't name the case We never name you, the company or the case in public without your written permission.
Only a signed agreement is binding; this page sets out how we intend to work.
Data protection
Records that name people contain personal data, so UK data protection law applies when they change hands. The codes don't change that, and we treat what we prepare as personal data.
Our guide has a section for administrators and liquidators: who controls the data after an appointment, what the professional bodies and regulators have said, and how long records survive, all with sources.
Who you're dealing with
Bayeset buys copies of business records from UK and German companies, including closed and insolvent ones, and prepares them for AI developers. We're based in Munich.
Florian Findeis runs Bayeset. You'll deal with him from the first call, and he signs the agreement himself, in his own name. If a company later takes over Bayeset's business, your agreement passes to it only with your approval.
He came to Bayeset from Tacto, which builds AI for industrial procurement. He spent three and a half years there, latterly as Head of Strategy & Operations.
Talk to us before the servers go off
Records are often lost when they do. We also buy what survives only in archives or backups.
Please don't email us records, passwords or login details: data reaches us only after signing, by the route the agreement sets out. If a message claiming to be from us seems odd, ring us first.