Belgian company data API: KBO/BCE lookup and new-company feed

Find out who is behind a Belgian enterprise number, or get a list of newly registered Belgian companies in your sector and region. For each company you get legal name, legal form, status, start date, registered address and NACE-BEL activities from the official KBO/BCE register (Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen / Banque-Carrefour des Entreprises). Built for sales teams, KYB/onboarding checks, data teams and AI agents.

Why use this Actor

• Official source: the FPS Economy's KBO/BCE Public Search, not a third-party copy.
• Two modes: look up known enterprise numbers, or discover companies by NACE-BEL code, postal code or name.
• Delta mode: schedule it weekly and receive (and pay for) only companies you have not received before.
• Plain HTTP, no proxies, no browser, no login. About 40 companies per minute.
• Every field comes from the register. Unknown values are null, nothing is guessed.

Quick start

Click Start with the prefilled input. It looks up three well-known enterprises:

{
  "enterpriseNumbers": ["0403.199.702", "0202.239.951", "0200.065.765"],
  "maxItems": 3
}

In about 4 seconds you get 3 dataset items (BNP Paribas Fortis, Proximus, Veneco) with name, legal form, address and NACE activities.

Weekly feed of new IT companies in Ghent:

{
  "naceCodes": ["62.100", "62.200"],
  "postalCodes": ["9000", "9030", "9040", "9050"],
  "startedWithinDays": 14,
  "onlyNewCompanies": true,
  "stateStoreName": "kbo-it-ghent",
  "maxItems": 200
}

What you get

Field	Meaning
enterpriseNumber, status, startDate	Number (0000.000.000), Active/Stopped, enterprise start date (ISO)
name, abbreviation, names[]	Legal name, abbreviation, all names with language and date
legalForm, legalFormSince, entityType	Legal form (KBO English wording), legal person or natural person
address	Registered seat: street, postalCode, city, since
phone, email, website, capitalEur	When KBO has them, else null
activities[]	NACE-BEL code, description, VAT/NSSO, version 2025/2008/2003, start date
characteristics[], authorisations[]	Employer, VAT liable, contracting authority, licences
establishments[]	Optional: branch units with number, name, start date, address
functions[]	Optional: directors and other functions (personal data, see Legal)
gazettePublicationsUrl, annualAccountsUrl	Links as given by KBO (not crawled)
kboDataDate, scrapedAt	Date of the KBO database situation, your scrape time

Real sample item from a discovery run:

{
  "enterpriseNumber": "0542.874.950",
  "sourceUrl": "https://kbopub.economie.fgov.be/kbopub/toonondernemingps.html?lang=en&ondernemingsnummer=0542874950",
  "status": "Active",
  "juridicalSituation": "Normal situation",
  "juridicalSituationSince": "2013-12-10",
  "startDate": "2013-12-10",
  "name": "AED SICAD-SIGGIS",
  "abbreviation": null,
  "names": [{ "kind": "name", "value": "AED SICAD-SIGGIS", "language": "nl", "since": "2013-12-10" }],
  "entityType": "Legal person",
  "legalForm": "Company or association without legal personality",
  "legalFormSince": "2013-12-10",
  "address": { "street": "Bisdomplein 3", "postalCode": "9000", "city": "Gent", "since": "2021-12-27" },
  "phone": null,
  "fax": null,
  "email": null,
  "website": null,
  "establishmentCount": 0,
  "capitalEur": null,
  "annualAssembly": null,
  "fiscalYearEnd": null,
  "characteristics": [{ "name": "Subject to VAT", "since": "2014-01-01" }],
  "authorisations": [],
  "activities": [
    { "classification": "VAT", "naceVersion": "2025", "code": "62.100", "description": "Computer programming activities", "since": "2025-01-01" },
    { "classification": "VAT", "naceVersion": "2025", "code": "62.200", "description": "Computer consultancy and computer facilities management activities", "since": "2025-01-01" }
  ],
  "functions": null,
  "establishments": null,
  "establishmentsTruncated": null,
  "gazettePublicationsUrl": "https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_tsv/list.pl?language=fr&btw=0542874950&page=1&view_numac=0542874950#SUM",
  "annualAccountsUrl": "https://consult.cbso.nbb.be/consult-enterprise/0542874950",
  "kboDataDate": "2026-10-17",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-18T22:22:11.341617Z"
}

Modes and filters

1. Lookup: enterpriseNumbers in any format (0403.199.702, BE0403199702). Numbers with a wrong check digit are ignored locally; numbers not in the register are skipped.
2. Discovery by activity: naceCodes + postalCodes (NACE-BEL 2025). Matches the registered seat or any establishment at that postal code.
3. Discovery by name: searchTerm (+ optional searchPostalCode), phonetic, includes old names.
4. Filters (discovery): startedSince, startedWithinDays, legalForms, onlyActive.
5. Delta mode: onlyNewCompanies stores delivered companies in the named key-value store stateStoreName and skips them on later runs. The first run returns everything that matches.

Public Search returns at most 200 hits per query (10 pages of 20). Bigger queries log a warning; narrow them with specific NACE codes or fewer postal codes. Discovery has to read each hit's detail page to know its start date (the list does not show it): about 1.5 seconds per candidate. Candidates that fail the date filter are not billed; in delta mode their start dates are remembered, so later runs skip them without a request.

Pricing

Pay per event: company-scraped, $3.00 per 1,000 companies ($0.003 each). One event is charged per company item written to the dataset.

Free: enterprise numbers that are invalid or not in the register, companies that fail your filters, companies already delivered in delta mode, pages that cannot be parsed.

maxItems is a hard cap on billed companies per run (default 50). Example: a weekly run with maxItems 200 that finds 37 new companies costs 37 x $0.003 = $0.11. Platform usage is separate and small.

Use with AI agents (MCP, Claude, Cursor, n8n, Make)

AI agents can call this Actor through the Apify MCP server.

{ "mcpServers": { "apify": { "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=goobertje/belgium-kbo-company-registry" } } }

Sign in with OAuth in the browser on first use. Example prompts and the input each maps to:

• "Look up Belgian enterprise 0403.199.702 and tell me its legal form and address." -> { "enterpriseNumbers": ["0403.199.702"], "maxItems": 1 }
• "Which Belgian software companies started in Antwerp in the last 30 days?" -> { "naceCodes": ["62.100", "62.200"], "postalCodes": ["2000", "2018", "2060"], "startedWithinDays": 30, "maxItems": 50 }
• "Find Belgian private limited companies named Delhaize in Brussels." -> { "searchTerm": "delhaize", "searchPostalCode": "1000", "legalForms": ["private limited company"], "maxItems": 20 }

In n8n, Make or Zapier use the Apify node/module, pick this Actor and paste the same JSON.

Use cases

• Weekly lead list of newly registered Belgian companies by NACE code and region.
• KYB / onboarding: is this enterprise number active, what is its legal form and seat.
• Enrich CRM or invoice data with legal name, legal form and activities.
• Market sizing by NACE code and postal code.
• Let an AI agent verify a Belgian company on the fly.

FAQ

Where does the data come from, and is it allowed? From the KBO Public Search of the FPS Economy. The FPS states its web content is not protected by copyright and may be reused, including commercially (CC0). robots.txt was checked on 2026-10-19: no robots.txt rules (404). The Actor uses a plain HTTP client at a low rate.

How fresh is it? The Public Search shows the KBO database as of the previous day. Each item has kboDataDate.

What does a typical run cost? 100 companies cost $0.30. The prefilled run costs $0.009.

What if the source blocks or changes? A CAPTCHA, or three 403/429 answers in a row, stops the whole run. The Actor never tries to solve or bypass it; it keeps what it delivered, saves the delta state and ends with a clear error. If five detail pages in a row cannot be parsed, it stops instead of delivering broken items.

Can I schedule it and get only new companies? Yes: schedule weekly, set onlyNewCompanies and a stateStoreName per feed.

What is not included? Financial statements, turnover, owners (UBOs) and Belgian Official Gazette contents. The Gazette is not scraped because its robots.txt disallows the publication search paths; only the link KBO publishes is passed through.

Limits and honest caveats

• The English interface is an unofficial translation; legal forms and descriptions are KBO's English wording. Only the Dutch, French and German versions are official.
• Speed is about one request every 1.5 seconds on purpose (minimum 1 second).
• KBO throttles heavy use from one IP address with a CAPTCHA page. Retry later, raise requestDelaySecs, or lower maxCandidates.
• The activity search needs postal codes. Legal form is filtered after the fetch, not at the source.
• Only legal entities are returned by default.

Legal and disclaimer

The data is public information published by the Belgian FPS Economy in the KBO/BCE. Please cite "KBO/BCE Public Search, FPS Economy" and the kboDataDate.

Personal data. Names of directors and other functions (includeFunctions) and sole traders registered under their own name (includeNaturalPersons) are personal data under the GDPR. Both are off by default. You are responsible for having a lawful basis and purpose. The FPS Economy states that personal data from the register may not be reused for direct marketing.

The information may be incomplete or out of date; it is not legal advice and has no legal value. This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the FPS Economy, the KBO/BCE or any Belgian authority. For official, legally valid data use the official channels (for example the KBO Open Data download or the KBO web service, which require registration with the FPS Economy).

Found a problem or want a field added? Open an issue on the Actor page.