🏛️ Minnesota Franchise Registrations Scraper

Minnesota requires franchisors to register with the state before selling any franchise locally. That means the state keeps a public record of every franchisor that has filed or renewed, going back over a decade.

This tool gives you direct access to that registry. Search by brand, franchisor name, year, or document type and get structured records for every filing, each with a direct link to the official PDF on file with the state.

The Minnesota Franchise Registrations Scraper collects franchise filing records from the Minnesota Department of Commerce, including franchisor names, brand names, document types, filing years, file numbers, and direct download links to FDDs, financial statements, and franchise agreements.

✨ What Does It Do

• 🏢 Full Franchise Registry - access every franchisor that has registered or renewed in Minnesota, with legal entity names and brand names
• 📄 Direct FDD Links - get download links to Clean FDDs, Final FDDs, Financial Statements, and Franchise Agreements filed with the state
• 📅 10+ Years of History - retrieve filings going back over a decade to track how franchisors have grown, changed, or exited the market
• 🔢 Official File Numbers - capture the Minnesota file number for each registrant for cross-referencing and compliance work
• 🔍 Flexible Filters - narrow results by franchisor name, brand, document type, year, or file number

🔧 Input

• Max Items - how many records to collect. Free users: up to 100. Paid users: up to 1,000,000
• Document Type - filter by filing type. Clean FDD and Final FDD are the most relevant for investor research. Leave blank for all types
• Franchisor Name - partial match on the legal entity name (e.g. "McDonald" finds "McDonald's USA, LLC")
• Franchise Brand Name - filter by the brand name (e.g. "Subway", "Anytime Fitness")
• Year - filter by filing year (e.g. "2024", "2025"). Defaults to 2025
• File Number - look up a specific Minnesota file number
• Document ID - look up a specific document reference number
• Content Search - search within document content

Example — get all Clean FDDs from 2024:

{
  "documentType": "Clean FDD",
  "year": "2024",
  "maxItems": 500
}

Example — search a specific brand:

{
  "franchisor": "Subway",
  "maxItems": 50
}

📊 Output

Each record includes the following fields. Download as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

🏷️ Document ID	🏢 Franchisor	🎯 Franchise name
📄 Document type	📅 Year	🔢 File number
📝 Notes	📬 Received date	➕ Added on
🔗 PDF download link	🗺️ State	🕐 Scraped at

💎 Why Use the Minnesota Franchise Registrations Scraper?

Feature	Our Actor
Official Minnesota Department of Commerce source	✔️
Direct PDF download links to FDDs	✔️
50+ document type filters	✔️
Filter by franchisor, brand, year, or file number	✔️
10+ years of filing history	✔️
No login or authentication required	✔️
Free tier: up to 100 records per run	✔️
Paid tier: up to 1,000,000 records per run	✔️
Export to JSON, CSV, or Excel	✔️

📋 How to Use

1. Sign Up: Create a free account with $5 credit
2. Find the Tool: Search for "Minnesota Franchise Registrations Scraper" in the Apify Store
3. Run It: Set your filters and click Start. Results appear immediately

No coding, no setup, no technical knowledge required.

🎯 Business Use Cases

• ✅ Franchise Investor - pull all current Clean FDD filings to get the official disclosure documents before committing capital to any franchise opportunity. The PDF link gives you the complete document in one click
• 📊 Franchise Broker - build and refresh a current list of all franchisors registered in Minnesota. Filter by year to track new entrants and renewal activity across your target market
• 🔍 Due Diligence Analyst - search by franchisor name to pull every filing they have ever submitted, including amendments, financial statements, and registration orders, going back over a decade

❓ FAQ

🔍 How does this work? The tool accesses Minnesota's official public franchise registration database and collects every filing that matches your search criteria, along with a direct link to the official document.

📄 What is an FDD? A Franchise Disclosure Document is a legal filing franchisors must submit before selling any franchise. It includes 23 standardized items covering fees, total investment, financial performance, litigation history, and unit counts. Minnesota requires public registration of this document.

🔗 Can I download the PDFs? Yes. Every record includes a direct link to the official PDF on file with the state. Click the link in the documentUrl field to open or download it.

📅 How far back does the history go? The Minnesota CARDS system has records going back over 10 years. Use the year filter to access filings from any year in the archive.

⚠️ Are there limits? Free users can collect up to 100 records per run. Paid users can collect up to 1,000,000 records per run. Note that at least one filter is required per run.

🔄 How current is the data? All records are pulled in real time from the official Minnesota state database. New filings appear as soon as the state processes them.

🔗 Integrate with Any App

• Make - automate workflows
• Zapier - connect 5000+ apps
• Slack - get notifications
• Google Drive - export to spreadsheets
• Airbyte - data pipelines

🤝 More ParseForge Actors

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• FINRA BrokerCheck Scraper - pull broker and firm registration data from FINRA's public database for financial due diligence
• BizBuySell Scraper - collect business-for-sale listings including asking price, revenue, cash flow, and industry

🚀 Ready to Start?

Create a free account with $5 credit and collect your first 100 results for free. No coding, no setup.

🆘 Need Help?

• Check the FAQ section above for common questions
• Visit the Apify support page for documentation and tutorials
• Contact us to request a new scraper, propose a custom project, or report an issue at Tally contact form

⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Commerce or any government agency. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.