How much is my company data worth? A plain guide to data valuation

Your company data has a value. Your balance sheet says it's zero.

That's not your accountant's fault. Accounting rules don't let a company list its own customer records as an asset. International rules (IAS 38) say so outright. US rules treat most home-grown intangibles the same way.

So most owners have never put a number on their data. This guide shows how buyers do it. You'll learn the three ways to value company data. You'll see what pushes the price up or down. And you'll learn to make a rough estimate yourself.

What counts as company data

Company data is the record your business leaves behind as it works. Buyers look for six kinds:

• Customer data: who buys, what they buy, how often, and where.
• Transaction data: orders, invoices, prices paid, refunds.
• Product usage data: how people use your app, software or device.
• Operational data: stock levels, shipping, supplier prices, service visits.
• Expert content: support answers, reports, documents written by people who know your field.
• Industry records: property data, equipment readings, local prices, outcomes.

You didn't collect any of it to sell. That's what makes some of it valuable. It shows real behavior that no one else can see.

Three ways to value company data

Data is valued the same way as patents and brands. There are three methods. A good estimate uses more than one.

1. The cost method: what would it take to rebuild?

Add up what a buyer would spend to collect the same data. Count the people, the systems and the years.

This gives you a floor, not a price. And it undervalues history. No amount of money buys ten years of records in less than ten years.

2. The market method: what does similar data sell for?

Look at what buyers pay for data like yours. Same type, similar size, similar freshness.

Buyers find this method the most convincing. It is also the hardest, because most data deals are private. Some do become public. Reddit disclosed $203 million in data licensing contracts when it filed to go public in 2024. But few public deals look like a mid-sized company's records.

3. The income method: what can it earn?

Estimate what the data can earn over the next few years, from a buyer or from licensing it yourself. Then discount that back to today.

This method drives the value of data used for AI training, investing and pricing. It also swings the most, because it rests on guesses about demand.

What makes company data more or less valuable

Two companies in the same industry can own data that sells for wildly different prices. Six things explain most of the gap.

What it covers. Transaction and location data have many buyers. Some kinds of data have almost none.

How much and how far back. More records and a longer history are worth more. Five years of data is a different product from five months.

How fresh it is. A feed that updates every day beats a one-time file. Buyers can keep using it.

How rare it is. If only a few companies see what you see, buyers pay more. If ten rivals could sell the same thing, the price falls.

Your rights to it. This one can take the value to zero. If your contracts or privacy policy don't allow the use, no buyer can touch it.

Who wants it. A data broker, a hedge fund and an AI lab will each pay a different price. So will a company in your market. The buyer who needs it most sets the value.

Why it's hard to price your own business data

You know what you collect. You likely don't know three things:

• which buyers want it,
• what they paid for similar data, and
• how much cleanup it needs before anyone can use it.

Those three gaps stand between "we have a lot of data" and a real number.

How to estimate the value of your data yourself

Answer these five questions. Write the answers down.

1. What are your five biggest datasets? How many records and how many years does each hold?
2. Does each one contain personal information? What does your privacy policy say about sharing it?
3. Could anyone outside your company collect the same data? If not easily, that's a good sign.
4. Who could make money from it? Think rivals, suppliers, investors, researchers and AI developers.
5. How messy is it? Data spread across five systems with no notes needs work before it can be sold.

If you can answer all five, you have most of what a first estimate needs.

Frequently asked questions

How much is my company data worth?

It depends on six things. What the data covers, how much you have, how fresh it is, how rare it is, your rights to it, and who wants it. A free estimate gives you a range based on your industry and size.

Is company data an asset on the balance sheet?

Usually not. IFRS and US GAAP generally don't let a company record data it built itself as an asset. Data you bought, or gained by buying another company, can be recorded.

What kind of business data is worth the most?

Transaction data, product usage data and expert content in a narrow field draw the most interest. They show real behavior that is hard to get anywhere else.

Do I have to sell my data to learn its value?

No. A valuation is an estimate, not an offer. Many owners want the number for planning, raising money or selling the company.

Find out how much your company data is worth. The estimate is free. All we need is your company name and work email.