🏛️ California Secretary of State Business Entity Scraper

Search the California Secretary of State business registry (bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov) by company name. Returns official entity details including registration status, entity type, formation date, registered agent, and principal address. Includes risk scoring for dissolved, suspended, or inactive businesses.

🔍 What it does

This scraper searches the California Secretary of State's BizFile Online portal for business entities. For each business name you provide, it:

• 🔎 Searches the SOS business registry
• 📄 Navigates to the entity detail page
• 📊 Extracts official registration data
• ⚠️ Computes a risk level based on entity status (Active, Dissolved, Suspended, etc.)
• 📦 Returns structured results with risk signals

🚀 How to use

1. Create a free account w/ $5 credit on the Apify platform.
2. Open this Actor.
3. Enter the business names you want to search.
4. Click "Start" and wait for the results.
5. Download your data in JSON, CSV, Excel, or connect via API.

📥 Input

Field	Type	Description
businessNames	String[]	Required. List of business names to search (e.g., "Apple Inc", "Google LLC")
maxItems	Integer	Maximum number of results. Free users: limited to 100. Paid users: up to 1,000,000
proxyConfiguration	Object	Proxy settings. No proxy is needed by default. Enable if you experience blocking

Example input

{
  "businessNames": ["Apple Inc", "Google LLC", "Tesla Inc"],
  "maxItems": 10
}

📤 Output

Each result contains the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
entityName	String	Official entity name registered with the California SOS
entityNumber	String	SOS entity/file number
url	String	Link to the SOS detail page
searchTerm	String	Original search term used
entityType	String	Corporation, LLC, Limited Partnership, etc.
status	String	Active, Dissolved, Suspended, Forfeited, Surrendered, etc.
riskLevel	String	Risk assessment: low, medium, high, or critical
formationDate	String	Date the entity was formed or registered
registeredAgent	String	Agent for service of process
principalAddress	String	Business principal address
signals	Array	Risk signal details [{type, severity, description}]
scrapedAt	String	ISO timestamp when the data was scraped
error	String	Error message if the search failed

🚦 Risk levels

Status	Risk Level	Meaning
✅ Active	Low	Business is registered and in good standing
⚠️ Suspended, Forfeited	High	Registration is not in good standing
🚫 Dissolved, Surrendered, Canceled, Term Expired	Critical	Business is no longer active
🔄 Merged Out, Converted-Out	Medium	Business may have transitioned
❓ Not found	Medium	No matching entity in California SOS records

Example output

{
  "entityName": "APPLE INC.",
  "entityNumber": "C0806592",
  "url": "https://bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/business",
  "searchTerm": "Apple Inc",
  "entityType": "DOMESTIC STOCK CORPORATION",
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "riskLevel": "low",
  "formationDate": "01/03/1977",
  "registeredAgent": "CT CORPORATION SYSTEM",
  "principalAddress": "ONE APPLE PARK WAY, CUPERTINO, CA 95014",
  "signals": [
    {
      "type": "entity_active",
      "severity": "low",
      "description": "Entity status is \"ACTIVE\" - business is registered and in good standing"
    }
  ],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-02-23T12:00:00.000Z"
}

💡 Use cases

• 🤝 Due diligence - Verify business registration status before partnerships, acquisitions, or investments
• 🏢 Vendor vetting - Check if suppliers and contractors are properly registered in California
• 📈 Portfolio monitoring - Track registration status of businesses in your portfolio
• 📋 Compliance research - Verify entity status for regulatory compliance
• 🎯 Lead qualification - Filter leads by business registration status
• ⚖️ Legal research - Find registered agent and address information for service of process

🔗 Integration

Connect this scraper with your existing tools using Apify integrations:

• Make (Integromat) - Automate workflows with scraped business data
• Zapier - Connect to 5,000+ apps
• Google Sheets - Export results directly to spreadsheets
• Slack - Get notifications when scraping completes
• GitHub - Trigger scrapes from CI/CD pipelines
• Airbyte - Sync data to your data warehouse
• Google Drive - Save results as files

You can also use the Apify API to programmatically start runs, fetch results, and integrate with any system.

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⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor is provided for informational and research purposes only. The data is scraped from publicly available California Secretary of State records. The developers are not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the data. Use at your own risk. Always verify critical business information through official channels. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by the California Secretary of State.