What OpenCorporates does

OpenCorporates, a London-based private company founded in 2010 and structured as a Certified B Corporation, operates the world's largest open legal-entity database, aggregating company and officer records from more than 140 government registries and official sources into a unified, standardized data model with end-to-end provenance tracking. Distribution occurs through three primary channels: a self-serve web portal (opencorporates.com) for SMB and individual lookups, a tiered self-serve API providing 500 to 5,000 calls per month at published annual subscription prices of £2,250 to £12,000, and enterprise-grade bulk data delivery via secure SFTP alongside bespoke solutions sold through a field sales motion. The platform serves a diversified customer base spanning financial institutions (PwC, Adyen, Manulife, Quantexa, Sigma, Encompass, Exiger, ethiXbase, Quantifind, Sonovate), government and regulators (US Treasury, UK FCA, EU Anti-Fraud Office, Isle of Man FIU, OECD, UN Statistics Division), risk-tech platforms (Aravo, OpenSanctions), and a free-at-scale public-benefit program used by investigative journalism networks (ICIJ, Global Witness, Transparency International, Miami Herald).

Revenue mechanics rest on API subscriptions, recurring bulk-data contracts, and bespoke enterprise engagements; pricing for public-benefit projects is freemium and application-based. The proprietary Legal-Entity Data Principles framework, published under Creative Commons CC-BY, sets an industry-standard quality bar and underpins the company's positioning against proprietary data providers. In April 2023 the company expanded its partnership with GLEIF to enhance LEI-mapping, followed in May 2023 by a strategic partnership with Microsoft's Advanced Cloud Transparency Services to broaden accessibility. In February 2026 OpenCorporates launched PLEI (proto legal entity identifier), a free identifier system positioned as an alternative to the fee-based Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), initially deployed in the US with global expansion planned. Headcount is small (11-50 employees), no venture funding rounds are disclosed, and the company has historically been supported by grants (e.g., ODINE, 2015) alongside commercial revenue.

Name

OpenCorporates

Legal name

OpenCorporates Ltd

Website

https://opencorporates.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

OpenCorporates operates the world's largest open legal-entity database, aggregating company records from over 140 government registries. It serves banks, payment processors, risk-tech providers, governments, regulators, and investigative journalists via API subscriptions and enterprise bulk-data contracts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Legal-Entity Data and Corporate Transparency Intelligence

NAICS

Directory and Mailing List Publishers (513140), Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929)

akta.pro primary industry

Data Sharing & Data Marketplace Governance (HDAEADAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

Open Finance Expansion (investments, pensions, insurance, utilities data) (FSAGACAK)

Keywords

• Legal entity data
• Company registry data
• KYC compliance data
• Corporate transparency data
• Beneficial ownership data

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. API Access Subscriptions: Tiered subscription plans providing API access to legal-entity data. Plans range from Essentials (£2,250/year for 500 API calls/month) through Starter (£6,600/year for 2,500 calls/month) to Basic (£12,000/year for 5,000 calls/month). Commercial pricing for internal and external use.
2. Bulk Data Delivery: Enterprise-grade bulk data delivery via secure SFTP, allowing customers to select specific jurisdictions and set delivery frequency preferences. Targets organizations running analytics or AI workloads requiring comprehensive datasets.
3. Enterprise Bespoke Solutions: Custom API configurations and bespoke solutions for enterprise customers requiring specialized data mappings and consumption methods, handled through solution expert consultations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

OpenCorporates operates the world's largest open legal-entity database, aggregating company records from 140+ government registries and official sources worldwide into a unified, standardized data model. The company sells programmatic access to this dataset through tiered API subscriptions, enterprise bulk data delivery via secure SFTP, and a self-serve web portal, serving KYC/AML compliance, third-party risk management, investigations, and corporate transparency use cases.

Product overview

OpenCorporates offers a unified data platform centered on the world's largest open legal-entity database, aggregating company records from over 140 government registries. The core product portfolio consists of the main database, API Access for programmatic integration, and Bulk Data Delivery for analytics applications. These are accessible via the web portal's Standard and Advanced Search interfaces. The platform serves multiple use cases including Entity Verification, Third-Party Risk Management, Investigations, Data Management, and Business Discovery—all underpinned by the company's Legal-Entity Data Principles framework. A recent addition is PLEI (proto legal entity identifier), launched in February 2026 as a free alternative to the traditional LEI system, initially available in the US with global expansion planned.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• OpenCorporates Database The world's largest open legal-entity database providing a single unified set of company records from over 140 government registries and other official sources around the world, with fresh, standardized, auditable information. Used by financial institutions, governments, professional services firms, journalists, and developers.
• API Access Self-serve API plans providing direct, real-time access to underlying structured data on the OpenCorporates dataset. Powers onboarding or investigation workflows with results as JSON or XML. Tiered plans (Essentials, Starter, Basic) for small teams and developers.
• Bulk Data Delivery Enterprise-grade bulk data delivery service for running analytics or AI applications. Customers can select specific jurisdictions, set preferred delivery frequency, and receive data securely via SFTP. Includes enterprise support and bespoke configurations.
• PLEI (Proto Legal Entity Identifier) A free business identification system launched as an alternative to the fee-based Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) programme, providing a standardised, open identifier that connects to corporate registries worldwide. Initially launching in the US with global expansion planned.

Quantifiable outcome

• 80% of North America and Europe's largest banks use OpenCorporates
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers19 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core, key and supporting.

• Microsoft Advanced Cloud Transparency Services (ACTS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 May 2023Microsoft's ACTS initiative helps governments mobilize data to accelerate and enhance transparency. OpenCorporates partnered with Microsoft in May 2023 to enable global business transparency, leveraging Microsoft's Advanced Cloud Transparency Services to expand data accessibility.
• Global Legal Entity Foundation (GLEIF)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 April 2023Established by the Financial Stability Board in 2014, GLEIF is tasked with supporting the implementation and use of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). OpenCorporates and GLEIF expanded their partnership in April 2023 to increase legal-entity transparency in global markets. The LEI-mapping capability was enhanced as LEI Data links to corresponding records in the OpenCorporates database. Stephan Wolf, CEO of GLEIF, noted the collaboration brings greater transparency and identity management efficiencies for millions of data consumers globally.
• International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerICIJ is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations. ICIJ used OpenCorporates data to clean up and match the Panama Papers prior to publication, enabling major investigations including the Pandora Papers.
• OCCRP (Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project)keyStrategic or Co-development PartnerOCCRP is an investigative reporting platform for a worldwide network of independent media centers and journalists. OCCRP's Chief Technology Officer Emma Prest has spoken publicly about the value of transparent company data for investigations.
• OpenOwnershipkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpenOwnership helps countries generate high quality data on company ownership. Both organizations share missions focused on corporate transparency and open data.
• OpenSanctionssupportingTechnology or IntegrationOpenSanctions is an international database of persons and companies of political, criminal, or economic interest. Integrates with OpenCorporates data for enhanced due diligence and compliance workflows.
• Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOECD is an international organization that works to build better policies for better lives. UNSD and OECD use OpenCorporates' data to help the world understand multinational enterprises. Graham Pilgrim, Head of Real-Time Data Analytics at OECD, noted OpenCorporates provides a foundational layer for validating official legal entities across data sources.
• United Nations Statistics DivisioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe United Nations Statistics Division is committed to the advancement of the global statistical system. Collaborates with OpenCorporates on understanding multinational enterprises and global corporate structures.
• Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative (AHTII)keyStrategic or Co-development PartnerAHTII aims to disrupt the market of human trafficking and child exploitation sexual-abuse material. Uses OpenCorporates data to trace corporate structures involved in trafficking networks.
• AravosupportingTechnology or IntegrationAravo delivers the market's smartest third-party risk and performance management solutions, powered by intelligent automation. Integrates OpenCorporates data for enhanced supplier risk assessment.
• ThunderCat TechnologysupportingChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorThunderCat is a premier and trusted provider of Information Technology to the Federal Government and Fortune 500. Serves as a distribution channel for OpenCorporates data to government clients.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Trulioo: Trulioo provides global identity and business verification APIs, including KYB capabilities that verify legal entities worldwide. It overlaps with OpenCorporates on entity-verification use cases, with a developer-first API product aimed at onboarding and compliance.
• Sayari: Sayari provides global corporate ownership, supply chain, and trade-illicit finance data, aggregating registry records across jurisdictions. It targets similar compliance, KYC, and investigative use cases as OpenCorporates, with a focus on beneficial ownership mapping.
• Middesk: Middesk provides business verification and underwriting infrastructure using government registry data, primarily focused on US entities with expansion to additional markets. It addresses similar KYB and risk-use cases as OpenCorporates for fintechs and banks.
• OpenSanctions: OpenSanctions is an open database of persons and entities of political, criminal, or economic interest, integrating sanctions, PEP, and corporate watchlist data. It complements OpenCorporates for enhanced due-diligence workflows and shares its open-data ethos.
• Encompass Corporation: Encompass is a KYC/KYB automation platform that automates customer and ultimate beneficial owner identification across jurisdictions. It is a customer and integration partner of OpenCorporates but also a competitor in entity-resolution workflows for financial institutions.

Direct peers

• Refinitiv (LSEG): Refinitiv, now part of the London Stock Exchange Group, provides World-Check and extensive legal-entity reference data for KYC, AML, and counterparty due diligence. Its scale, regulatory relationships, and bundled enterprise offerings make it a primary competitor to OpenCorporates in financial-services compliance.
• Dun & Bradstreet: Dun & Bradstreet is a long-established business data provider with global coverage of legal entities, used for KYC, supply chain, and credit decisions. Its DUNS identifier and proprietary data model compete directly with OpenCorporates' entity-resolution and primary-source coverage, especially within large enterprises.
• Bureau van Dijk (Moody's): Bureau van Dijk, now part of Moody's, operates one of the world's largest private company information databases (Orbis) covering 400M+ companies. It is the closest direct competitor to OpenCorporates in aggregating global legal-entity data for compliance and KYC use cases, though with a paid, proprietary model rather than open data.

Broad incumbents

• Verisk Analytics: Verisk provides specialized data analytics across insurance, risk, and compliance, including business-entity information used in underwriting and fraud detection. While broader in scope, its entity-data offerings overlap with OpenCorporates for risk and compliance workflows.
• LexisNexis Risk Solutions: LexisNexis Risk Solutions aggregates public and proprietary records (corporate filings, sanctions, adverse media) for AML, KYC, and fraud use cases. It overlaps with OpenCorporates on legal-entity resolution but operates as a broader risk-data platform with proprietary, non-open data.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks1 record

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/opencorporates
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/opencorporates
• Facebookfacebook.com/232142360134288

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about OpenCorporates