Companies House In-Depth Scraper

Find brand-new UK businesses the day after they register, filtered to the industries and areas you sell to, with the director's name, a website check, the director's other companies, and email addresses.

Over 2,000 limited companies register at Companies House every working day. Every one of them is about to need a bank account, an accountant, insurance, a website, a phone line, a logo, signage and a card machine. This Actor turns the official register into a clean, ready-to-use lead list, so you reach them before your competitors do.

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Who it is for

• Web designers and marketing agencies: new companies with no website yet
• Accountants and bookkeepers: every new Ltd needs year-end accounts and a tax return
• Insurance brokers: trades, hospitality and retail need cover before they open
• Business banks, card machine and payment providers
• Sign makers, printers, vehicle wrap and workwear suppliers
• Recruiters, IT support and telecoms providers
• Anyone researching new business activity in a sector or region

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What you get for each company

Field	What it means
company_name, company_number	As registered at Companies House
incorporated_on	The day the company was registered
company_type, company_status	e.g. ltd, active
sic_codes, industry	The company's declared business activity, and which of our industry groups it falls into
address, locality, postcode, country	Registered office address
director_name	The first director, in normal "First Last" order
director_nationality, director_occupation, director_appointed_on	As filed
other_officers	Any other directors or secretaries
website_found, website_url	Whether an obvious website exists for the company name
director_other_active_companies	How many other active companies the director runs
director_other_company_name, director_other_company_website	One of those companies, and its website if we can find one
email_domain, email_domain_active, email_provider	The most likely email domain, whether it actually receives email, and who hosts it (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365...)
emails_found	Real addresses published on the company's (or the director's other company's) website
email_guesses	Likely addresses built from the director's name and the domain (unverified)
companies_house_url	The company's official page
google_search_url, linkedin_company_search_url, linkedin_director_search_url	One-click searches for finding phone numbers, social pages and the director's profile

Why the "director's other companies" field matters

A company registered yesterday almost never has a website or a public email yet. But many directors already run another business that does. The Actor looks up every other active company the director is appointed to, finds a website for one of them, and scrapes it for contact details. In testing, this was the most reliable route to a real email address for a brand-new company.

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How to use it (step by step)

1. Open the Actor and fill in the form

You only need to set what matters to you. Everything else has sensible defaults.

When were they registered?

• Days back: 1 means yesterday only. 7 means the last week.
• Or set From date and To date for an exact range. These override Days back.

What kind of business?

• Pick one or more Industries, or leave it empty for every trading business.
• Add Extra SIC codes to target one trade precisely (see the cheat sheet below).

Where?

• Postcode areas: the letters at the start of a postcode, e.g. M for Manchester, BS for Bristol. You can be more precise with a district such as BS1.
• Town or city: matches the registered office town, e.g. Leeds.
• Country: England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

How many and how much detail?

• Maximum leads: the run stops when it has delivered this many.
• Only companies with no website: tick this if you sell websites or marketing.
• Look up the director's other companies and Find email addresses: on by default. Turn them off if you only need names and addresses; the run will be much faster.

2. Click Start

Leads appear in the Output tab as each one is finished, so you can watch them arrive. A run of 50 fully enriched leads usually takes 3 to 8 minutes. With the extra lookups turned off it takes seconds.

3. Download or connect your results

From the Output tab, export as Excel, CSV, JSON or HTML. Or send them straight to Google Sheets, HubSpot, a CRM or email tool using Apify's integrations (Zapier, Make, n8n, webhooks) or the API.

4. (Optional) Run it every morning automatically

Go to Schedules, create a schedule (for example 08:00 every weekday), and choose this Actor with "daysBack": 1. Each morning you get yesterday's new companies. Add an integration to have them delivered to a spreadsheet or your inbox.

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Ready-made examples

Paste any of these into the JSON view of the input.

New trades in Greater Manchester with no website, last 7 days

{
  "daysBack": 7,
  "industries": ["trades"],
  "postcodePrefixes": ["M", "SK", "OL", "BL", "WN", "WA"],
  "excludeCompaniesWithWebsite": true,
  "maxLeads": 100
}

Every new restaurant, cafe and takeaway in London yesterday

{
  "sicCodes": ["56101", "56102", "56103"],
  "postcodePrefixes": ["EC", "WC", "W", "N", "NW", "SW", "SE", "E"],
  "maxLeads": 200
}

New hair and beauty businesses across Scotland this month

{
  "dateFrom": "2026-10-01",
  "dateTo": "2026-10-11",
  "industries": ["beauty"],
  "country": "Scotland",
  "maxLeads": 300
}

Fast, names and addresses only: all new UK companies yesterday

{
  "maxLeads": 2000,
  "checkWebsite": false,
  "findDirectorOtherCompanies": false,
  "findEmails": false
}

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Cheat sheets

Industry groups

Industry	Includes
Trades and construction	Builders, electricians, plumbers, joiners, plasterers, painters, roofers, scaffolders, cleaning, landscaping
Retail shops	Every kind of shop and market stall
Restaurants, cafes, pubs, hotels	Restaurants, cafes, takeaways, catering, pubs, bars, hotels, holiday lets
Hair, beauty, wellbeing	Hairdressers, barbers, beauty salons, spas, therapists
Professional services	Solicitors, accountants, consultants, architects, engineers, advertising, photographers
Health and care	Clinics, dentists, care homes, social care
Fitness and sport	Gyms, personal trainers, sports clubs and facilities
Online shops	Retail via internet or mail order
Motor trade	Car sales, garages, parts, motorcycles

Popular SIC codes

Business	SIC	Business	SIC
Plumbers / heating	43220	Hairdressers	96021
Electricians	43210	Barbers	96022
Joiners / carpenters	43320	Restaurants	56101
Plasterers	43310	Cafes	56102
Painters / decorators	43341	Takeaways	56103
Roofers	43910	Pubs and bars	56302
Domestic building	41202	Dentists	86230
Garages / repairs	45200	Online retail	47910

Full list: resources.companieshouse.gov.uk/sic

City postcode areas

City	Postcode areas
London (central)	EC, WC, W, N, NW, SW, SE, E
Manchester	M, SK, OL, BL, WN, WA
Birmingham	B
Leeds	LS
Liverpool	L, CH
Bristol	BS
Newcastle	NE
Sheffield	S
Glasgow	G
Edinburgh	EH
Cardiff	CF
Belfast	BT
Nottingham	NG
Leicester	LE

A postcode area matches only that area: M is Manchester and does not include Milton Keynes (MK), Motherwell (ML) or Medway (ME).

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Pricing

You pay per lead delivered. You are never charged for:

• companies removed by your filters
• companies skipped because they already have a website (when you ask for that)
• a company that fails to process
• a search that finds nothing

Set a maximum cost per run in the run options and the Actor stops cleanly when it reaches it, keeping every lead delivered so far.

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Companies House API key (optional)

The Actor works without one. If you run large or frequent jobs, add your own free key so you get your own rate limit (600 requests per 5 minutes):

1. Register at developer.company-information.service.gov.uk.
2. Create an application, then create a REST API key.
3. Paste it into Your Companies House API key. It is stored encrypted and never shown in logs.

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Tips for better results

• Small areas need wider dates. One postcode area over one day may have only a handful of new companies. Use 7 to 30 days.
• Companies often file their SIC code late. Companies with no SIC code are kept rather than thrown away, so you do not miss real businesses.
• Check email_domain_active before emailing guesses. If it is false, the domain does not receive email and the guesses will bounce.
• Prefer emails_found over email_guesses. Found addresses were published on a real website.
• Use the LinkedIn and Google links to find a phone number or social page in one click.

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Honest limits

• The website check is a best guess. It tries the obvious domains for the company name (.co.uk, .com, .uk, .org.uk, .net). It can match an unrelated business with the same name, and it misses websites on unusual domains.
• Email guesses are not verified. They follow the most common patterns.
• Companies House does not publish director email addresses or phone numbers. This Actor never claims to have them.
• Only active companies are returned. Dormant shells, holding companies, nominee and property or finance vehicles are always excluded, because they almost never buy anything.

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FAQ

How fresh is the data? It is read live from the official Companies House API on every run. Yesterday's registrations are available the next morning.

Can I get companies from further back? Yes, any date range. Longer ranges just take longer to read.

Why did I get fewer leads than my maximum? There were not that many matching companies in your date range and area. Widen the dates, add postcode areas, or remove the "no website" option.

Is this legal to use? The data is the public register, published by Companies House for reuse. In the UK, contacting limited companies about business products is generally allowed under legitimate interest, provided you say who you are, give a clear way to opt out, and honour it. Sole traders and partnerships have stronger protection. You are responsible for how you use the results.

Something is wrong or missing. Open an issue on the Issues tab with your run link and I will look at it.