Can a PE firm combine portfolio company data into a single license?

The short answer: one sponsor, separate licenses

A PE firm cannot fold its portfolio companies' records into a single SourceX license, because the firm does not own those records. Each company created its own email, tickets, CRM history and engineering work, holds the rights to it, and must sign through its own owner, CEO, CFO or authorized representative. SourceX therefore qualifies, prices and licenses each company on its own.

What the firm can do is coordinate. An operating partner can screen the whole portfolio, introduce several qualifying companies in the same quarter and keep the approach consistent across them. The private equity operating partner overview covers that role; this page explains why the licenses stay separate and how coordination works instead.

Why the rights sit with each company, not the fund

Data rights follow the entity that created the records. Under the Copyright Act, copyright vests initially in the author, the employer counts as the author of a work made for hire, and ownership of any exclusive right can be transferred and held separately. Records that a portfolio company's staff produce in their jobs therefore generally belong to that company, not to its shareholders, unless contracts say otherwise.

A fund owns equity in each company. It does not own the companies' documents, and it cannot grant a license over them. Contracts add a second layer: each company's client agreements, employee notices and privacy policies set limits that differ from one business to the next. That is why rights review happens per company, as the explainer on why data rights matter sets out.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel, tax adviser or professional body before acting.

A pooled license versus company-by-company licensing

How a coordinated portfolio program works

1. The operating team settles internally who may introduce companies and whether any reward will be kept, offset or declined.
2. It screens each holding on size, history, systems and rights.
3. It introduces each qualifying company separately, through the referral form or a referral link that takes that company to sourcex.si/apply.
4. Each company's sponsor works with SourceX on its own data inventory and rights review.
5. Each company agrees its own price and terms, and nothing binds it until it signs.
6. AI labs and data buyers review each opportunity on that company's records.
7. Each deal closes and the company is paid; any partner reward follows once SourceX has received its fee.

What the team learns on the first company, such as which systems export cleanly, can make the next inventory faster, but each company still stands on its own.

Why a portfolio view still matters

Portfolios are older than they used to be. Bain's Global Private Equity Report 2026 found that almost 40% of portfolio companies have been held for more than five years, up from 29% in 2019, and that GPs are holding assets longer to buy time to grow EBITDA. A company held that long has accumulated years of records under the sponsor's ownership, and a sponsor looking for new levers has reason to screen every holding, not only the obvious one.

The test for each company is identical. It should be a US business that has reached 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), with several years of documented history, records spread across many systems, clear rights and an executive willing to sponsor the process. The company fit checker runs a preliminary pass on each holding without asking for contact details.

LPA and conflict points to clear first

A coordinated program raises fund-level questions that a single introduction may not:

• Whether any reward received by the firm or its people falls within the fund's management fee offset.
• Whether directors who sit on several portfolio boards are keeping each company's information separate; one company's data or plans should never be shared with another.
• Whether each portfolio company's board should be told in writing who may benefit from the introduction.
• Whether any company is in a sale process, in which case timing belongs to the deal team; see who keeps license proceeds if the company is sold mid-deal.

How rewards work across several companies

Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. Rewards become payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee; an introduction, meeting or signed agreement alone does not trigger payment, and no reward is guaranteed.

The cap is cumulative per referred company, so each company's deals count toward its own cap rather than a single portfolio total. The reward is a share of SourceX's fee and is never deducted from any company's proceeds.

What each company keeps after its license

Each company keeps ownership of its data, and its license is typically exclusive for AI training for an agreed term. Owners who ask what that leaves them free to do should read whether a company can still use its own data after an exclusive license, and those curious about the buyer's side can read who owns a model trained on licensed data.

Next step

Pick the two holdings with the longest records, clear the fee question with fund counsel, then register as a partner and introduce each company separately.