Perform a KYB Check

A KYB (Know Your Business) check gives you a verified, structured view of a company’s legal identity, ownership structure, and key personnel. Kyckr retrieves this data live from the official company register at the point of request, ensuring you are always working with current information rather than a cached snapshot. This article covers how to retrieve an Enhanced Profile, what data it contains, and how to work with the response.

When to use an Enhanced Profile

Director verification

Retrieve a full list of company officials and directors, including their functions, dates of birth, and addresses, to support deeper due diligence.

Ownership structure

Access shareholder data, including share counts and percentages, to understand who owns and controls a company.

Everything in a Lite Profile

Includes all Lite Profile data — company name, registration number, legal status, and registered address — with expanded details where available from the registry.

Full KYB workflows

Combine all registry-sourced data — registration details, capital structure, officers, and shareholders — into a single profile for comprehensive onboarding checks.

What the Enhanced Profile Contains

The Enhanced Profile is Kyckr’s primary KYB data product. It extends the Lite Profile with structured ownership and representative data sourced directly from the company register.

Data category	Description
Company information	Legal name, registration number, status, addresses, legal form, and key dates
Representatives	Directors and other officers, including role, date of birth, and address
Shareholders	Individual and corporate shareholders with share count, percentage, and identity information
Ultimate Beneficial Owners	UBO data where filed in structured form at the register

Data availability varies by jurisdiction. Not all company registers file shareholder, representative, or UBO information in structured, machine-readable form. Where this information is unavailable, the relevant fields will be absent or empty in the response.

How It Works

Retrieving an Enhanced Profile is a two-step process:

Search for the company

Use the Company Search endpoint to locate the company and confirm it exists in the registry. The search response returns an id field — a unique identifier for that company in Kyckr’s network.

Order the Enhanced Profile

Pass the id from the search response as the resource identifier in the Enhanced Profile request. Kyckr retrieves the current data from the registry and returns it in the response.

Example using a New Zealand company

curl --location 'https://api.kyckr.com/v2/companies/NZ|OTQyOTAzMjk4MjU3Mg/enhanced' \
--header 'Authorization: {{apiKey}}'

Asynchronous fulfilment

For most jurisdictions, GET /v2/companies/{kyckrId}/enhanced returns the profile synchronously within ~40s. Where upstream fulfilment exceeds that window, the response today times out without delivery (primarily observed for Luxembourg, with Hong Kong also in scope). Two patterns are being introduced (preview) to address this:

POST + poll (recommended for production)

Returns an orderId immediately, no server-side connection hold. Poll GET /v2/orders/{orderId} until data.status is Success. Initial preview rollout: GB, IE, LU, EE, LV, CN, JP, HK.

GET with 202 fallback

GET /enhanced will hold up to ~40s; returns 200 with data if ready, or 202 with orderId if not. Use the Location header to poll. The 202 will fire only when upstream is slow.

Status: Preview — POST V2 Enhanced Profile will be rolled out registry-by-registry. The 202 GET fallback will fire opportunistically when upstream fulfilment exceeds ~40s. See the release note for the full rollout list and integration guidance.

Optional Parameters

You can include a customerreference parameter to attach your own reference to a transaction. This is useful for:

Tracking orders against internal records, such as a case ID or onboarding workflow reference.
Reconciling API transactions in your billing or audit logs.
Identifying requests when reviewing order history via the /orders endpoint.

Understanding the Response

The response is structured around four main data blocks: company information, representatives, shareholders (via the capital array), and ultimate beneficial owners.

Field	Description
`companyName`	Legal name of the company as filed at the register
`englishName`	English-language name, where provided by the register
`aliases`	Alternative or trading names
`previousNames`	Former legal names with applicable date ranges
`identifiers.primaryRegistrationNumber`	Primary company registration number
`registrationAuthority`	Name of the authority where the company is registered
`status.normalized`	Company status mapped to a controlled value (e.g. `Active`, `Dissolved`)
`legalForm.normalized`	Legal entity type (e.g. `Private Limited Company`)
`addresses`	Array of addresses, each typed (e.g. `Registered Address`, `Head Office`)
`foundationDate`	Date the company was founded
`registrationDate`	Date the company was registered
`incorporationDate`	Date the company was incorporated
`dissolutionDate`	Date of dissolution, where applicable
`activities`	Industry classifications (NACE, SIC, NAICS)

Representatives

Representatives are the filed officers of the company — directors, senior management, legal representatives, and similar roles. They are returned in the representatives object, which contains two arrays: individuals for natural persons and corporations for corporate entities.

Individual representative

"representatives": {
  "individuals": [
    {
      "type": "Person",
      "name": "SMITH, Jane",
      "address": {
        "fullAddress": "10 Example Street, Wellington, 6011, NZ",
        "postcode": "6011",
        "country": "NZ"
      },
      "birthdate": {
        "original": "15 March 1975",
        "normalized": "1975-03-15"
      },
      "role": {
        "original": "Director",
        "normalized": "Director"
      },
      "startDate": {
        "original": "01 January 2020",
        "normalized": "2020-01-01"
      },
      "isActive": true
    }
  ]
}

Corporate representative

Where a company (rather than an individual) holds a representative role, that entity appears in representatives.corporations:

"representatives": {
  "corporations": [
    {
      "type": "Corporation",
      "name": "PARENT HOLDINGS LIMITED",
      "registrationNumber": "987654321",
      "registrationAuthority": "Companies House, United Kingdom",
      "role": {
        "original": "Corporate Director",
        "normalized": "Director"
      },
      "isActive": true
    }
  ]
}

Key representative fields

Field	Description
`type`	Entity type: `Person`, `Corporation`, or `Other`
`name`	Name of the representative
`role.original`	Role as described at the source register
`role.normalized`	Role mapped to a controlled dictionary value
`startDate` / `endDate`	Appointment and resignation dates
`isActive`	Whether the representative is currently in post
`birthdate`	Date of birth (individuals only, where filed)
`address`	Address of the representative
`powers`	Descriptions of the representative’s powers, as stated at the register
`directorships`	Other directorships held (UK only — see below)

Directorship data (UK only)

For UK companies, passing the showDirectorships=true query parameter enriches each representative with a directorships array, listing other companies where the individual or corporation holds a position.

curl --location 'https://api.kyckr.com/v2/companies/{id}/enhanced?showDirectorships=true' \
--header 'Authorization: {{apiKey}}'

Each directorship entry contains the company number, company name, role, appointment dates, and whether the position is currently active.

Shareholders

Where the company register files shareholder information in structured form, the capital array contains one or more share class blocks. Each block describes a class of shares and its associated shareholdings. Within each shareholding, shareholders appear in either shareholders.individuals (natural persons) or shareholders.corporations (corporate entities), with their respective percentage of that share class.

"capital": [
  {
    "quantity": 100.0,
    "shareholdings": [
      {
        "percentage": "99.00",
        "shareholders": {
          "individuals": [
            {
              "type": "Person",
              "name": "KIELER, Mette",
              "address": {
                "fullAddress": "1 Cornford Street, Karori, Wellington, 6012, NZ",
                "postcode": "6012",
                "country": "NZ"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "percentage": "1.00",
        "shareholders": {
          "individuals": [
            {
              "type": "Person",
              "name": "JOYCE, Darryl",
              "address": {
                "fullAddress": "1 Cornford Street, Karori, Wellington, 6012, NZ",
                "postcode": "6012",
                "country": "NZ"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
]

In this example, two individuals hold shareholdings of 99% and 1% respectively within a single share class.

Percentage ranges

Some registers express shareholdings as a range rather than a precise figure. When this is the case, percentageIsRange is true and the percentage field is null. Use percentageRange, percentageLowerLimit, and percentageUpperLimit instead.

{
  "percentageIsRange": true,
  "percentageRange": "25-50%",
  "percentageLowerLimit": "25",
  "percentageUpperLimit": "50",
  "percentage": null
}

Key shareholding fields

Field	Description
`percentage`	Percentage of the share class held. Null when expressed as a range
`percentageIsRange`	`true` when the register provides a range rather than a precise value
`count`	Number of shares held in this class, where available
`totalNominalValue`	Total nominal value of shares in this shareholding
`beneficiallyHeld`	Indicates whether the holding is beneficially held. Where `false`, further investigation may be required

PDF download link

Every Enhanced Profile response includes a links.document field containing a path to a downloadable PDF version of the profile.

"links": {
  "document": "/orders/12345/download"
}

The PDF is generated on demand. If the profile contains a large volume of representative or shareholder records, allow a few seconds after receiving the API response before following the download link.

Data Availability by Jurisdiction

The depth of structured data in an Enhanced Profile depends on what the company register files and whether it is available in machine-readable form.

Scenario	Behaviour
Register files structured UBO data	UBO records appear in `ultimateBeneficialOwners`
Register files representatives but not shareholders	`capital` array will be absent or empty
Register files shareholdings as ranges	`percentageIsRange` is `true`; use range fields instead of `percentage`
Decentralised register (e.g. Germany, Canada)	Data is aggregated from regional sub-registries.

For a full breakdown of data availability by country, see Supported Jurisdictions.

Company Search

Find a company by name or registration number to retrieve the id needed for an Enhanced Profile request.

Lite Profile

Retrieve a company’s core registration details without representative or shareholder data.

Filing Search

Order official register extracts and filings alongside your KYB check.

Supported Jurisdictions

View register coverage and data availability across 100+ countries.

Getting Started

Useful Information

Features

Platform Details

When to use an Enhanced Profile

Director verification

Ownership structure

Everything in a Lite Profile

Full KYB workflows

What the Enhanced Profile Contains

How It Works

Example using a New Zealand company

Asynchronous fulfilment

POST + poll (recommended for production)

GET with 202 fallback

Optional Parameters

Understanding the Response

Company information

Representatives

Individual representative

Corporate representative

Key representative fields

Directorship data (UK only)

Shareholders

Percentage ranges

Key shareholding fields

PDF download link

Data Availability by Jurisdiction

Company Search

Lite Profile

Filing Search

Supported Jurisdictions

​When to use an Enhanced Profile

Director verification

Ownership structure

Everything in a Lite Profile

Full KYB workflows

​What the Enhanced Profile Contains

​How It Works

​Example using a New Zealand company

​Asynchronous fulfilment

POST + poll (recommended for production)

GET with 202 fallback

​Optional Parameters

​Understanding the Response

​Company information

​Representatives

​Individual representative

​Corporate representative

​Key representative fields

​Directorship data (UK only)

​Shareholders

​Percentage ranges

​Key shareholding fields

​PDF download link

​Data Availability by Jurisdiction

​Related Endpoints

Company Search

Lite Profile

Filing Search

Supported Jurisdictions

When to use an Enhanced Profile

What the Enhanced Profile Contains

How It Works

Example using a New Zealand company

Asynchronous fulfilment

Optional Parameters

Understanding the Response

Company information

Representatives

Individual representative

Corporate representative

Key representative fields

Directorship data (UK only)

Shareholders

Percentage ranges

Key shareholding fields

PDF download link

Data Availability by Jurisdiction

Related Endpoints