What Intelius does

Intelius is a consumer-facing information commerce company founded in 2003 that aggregates public records data and delivers people-search, reverse phone lookup, reverse address lookup, criminal and traffic records search, background check, and public records search services through a direct-to-consumer website. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, operates as Intelius LLC, and employs 101-250 people. Intelius explicitly positions itself outside the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) framework, serving personal, non-FCRA use cases only.

The company's core technology is a proprietary data aggregation engine that compiles information from county, state, and federal public records sources—including criminal records, public utility records, real estate/deed records, tax liens, and assessor/property tax records—and searches over 20 billion available public records. The platform supports search by name, phone number, or address, producing reports that aggregate contact details, address history, relatives, social media profiles, education and employment history, public criminal records, and property ownership data. All searches are confidential (subjects are not notified), and the site uses 256-bit encrypted connections.

Intelius operates on a subscription-based recurring revenue model with monthly memberships that include unlimited searches across the product suite. The go-to-market is entirely self-serve and product-led through the company's website, supported by content marketing (an active blog with area-code guides and educational resources), social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, an affiliate program at inteliusaffiliates.com, and SEO. Customers are individual consumers using the service for personal use cases such as reconnecting with old friends, verifying online dates, identifying unknown callers, researching property purchases, and self-background checks. The company carries a Better Business Bureau A rating as a trust signal. Intelius's primary historical strategic actions have centered on acquisitions (Classmates.com, Familybuilder, Spock, ZABA Inc, Qwil Company) and debt/financing rounds in 2015.

Name

Intelius

Legal name

Intelius LLC

Website

https://intelius.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Intelius is a consumer-facing data broker offering people search, reverse phone/address lookup, criminal records, and background check services via subscription memberships, aggregating over 20 billion public records for individual consumers since 2003.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Bellevue

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Subscription Membership: Intelius operates primarily on a subscription recurring revenue model where members pay for unlimited searches and instant access to reports. Membership plans include access to multiple search types including people search, reverse phone lookup, reverse address lookup, and background checks depending on the tier.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Intelius is an online people search and public records platform that aggregates over 20 billion public records and lets individual consumers run on-demand searches such as people search, reverse phone lookup, reverse address lookup, criminal and traffic records search, background check, and public records search. The service is sold as a subscription membership for personal, non-FCRA use cases, with reports generated on demand from the aggregated public records database.

Product overview

Intelius is a people search and public records data broker offering a suite of interconnected search tools. The core portfolio includes People Search (primary search by name, phone, or address), Reverse Phone Lookup, Criminal & Traffic Records Search, Background Check, Public Records Search, and Reverse Address Lookup. These products are offered as subscription-based services with unlimited search capabilities, aggregating data from billions of public records into comprehensive reports. The company positions itself as a consumer-facing information service that must not be used for FCRA-regulated purposes such as employment screening, tenant screening, or credit decisions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• People Search Search tool that lets individual consumers look up people by name and pull together associated public record information from Intelius's aggregated database. Built for personal, non-FCRA use.
• Reverse Phone Lookup Search tool that returns available public-record information associated with a phone number, including unlisted numbers. Used by individual consumers to identify unknown callers.
• Reverse Address Lookup Search tool that returns public records associated with a given street address, including current and past residents. Used by individual consumers for personal information lookups.
• Criminal & Traffic Records Search Search tool that surfaces criminal and traffic records associated with an individual from Intelius's aggregated public records database. Used by individual consumers for personal, non-FCRA lookups.
• Background Check Search tool that compiles a background report on an individual from Intelius's aggregated public records, based on a name search. Positioned for personal, non-FCRA use.
• Public Records Search Search tool that aggregates public records about an individual into a single report, sourced from the 20+ billion records in Intelius's database. Used by individual consumers for personal information lookups.

Quantifiable outcome

• 20+ billion available public records in search database
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• CheckPeople: Subscription-based people search and background report service offering similar reverse phone, address, and criminal record lookups for individual consumers.
• Pipl: Identity resolution and people-search data provider aggregating global public records; comparable core technology (data aggregation engine) but with stronger enterprise orientation alongside consumer offerings.
• BeenVerified: Subscription-based people search and background check service offering reverse phone, email lookup, address search, and criminal records — highly comparable product mix and GTM motion to Intelius.
• Whitepages: Established consumer people search and reverse phone lookup platform with a comparable subscription tier, targeting the same SMB/individual consumer use cases for contact and identity lookup.
• PeopleFinder: People search and public records aggregator offering free previews and subscription-based detailed reports, overlapping directly with Intelius's core search and pricing model.
• Spokeo: Direct D2C people-search and public records aggregator offering similar people search, reverse phone lookup, and background reports under a subscription model, serving the same consumer use cases as Intelius.
• US Search: Long-standing people search and public records service that Intelius explicitly cross-links to as 'US Search Pro,' indicating an adjacent/affiliated brand within the same data broker ecosystem.
• Instant Checkmate: D2C background check and people search service focused on criminal records, contact info, and public data reports, positioned similarly to Intelius in pricing and target audience.
• TruthFinder: Consumer-facing public records and background report platform using a similar subscription model, aggregating criminal, contact, and property data for the same individual consumer segment.

Emerging players

• GoodHire: FCRA-compliant background check provider for employment screening, explicitly referenced by Intelius for FCRA use cases. Operates in the same underlying public-records data space but in a regulated B2B segment Intelius cannot serve.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Intelius
• Facebookfacebook.com/intelius
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/intelius

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

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

M&A5 records

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Intelius