UK Company Check - Companies House KYB

UK Company Check — Companies House + HMRC VAT + UK Sanctions

UK Company Check runs a one-shot UK KYB (know your business) check: Companies House profile, active officers and PSCs, optional HMRC VAT validation and UK Sanctions List screening, in one result per company.

Best for: Merchant onboarding and KYB teams, B2B credit checks, supplier due diligence and fintech compliance operations.

What does UK Company Check do?

One-shot UK KYB check per company:

1. Companies House profile: status, type, incorporation date, SIC, registered office, overdue accounts/confirmation, insolvency history, charges
2. Active officers and persons with significant control (PSCs)
3. HMRC VAT number validation (name/address on VAT record) — optional
4. Company name, officers and PSCs screened against the UK Sanctions List (FCDO)
5. flags[]: not-found, status-dissolved, accounts-overdue, insolvency-history, vat-invalid, sanctions-potential-match

How to run a UK company (KYB) check

1. Add companies (company number, optionally a VAT number) to Companies.
2. Paste your free Companies House API key (and optionally an HMRC token).
3. Click Start and review the flags for each company.

Keys (bring your own)

• companiesHouseApiKey — free from https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk (rate limit 600 req / 5 min).
• hmrcAccessToken — optional; HMRC "Check a UK VAT number" API v2 requires an OAuth app-restricted token from https://developer.service.hmrc.gov.uk. Without it, VAT is reported as checked:false.
• No key? The Actor runs in demo mode on bundled sample data (Tesco PLC + a fictitious test company) so you can preview the output; demo results are free (not charged). mockMode: true forces demo mode.

Data: Companies House & UK Sanctions List under Open Government Licence v3.0. Not legal advice; potential matches need human review. (FCA Register data is deliberately not included — its terms prohibit bulk resale.)

Pricing (pay-per-event)

• company-checked: $0.02 per company ($20 / 1,000).
• Example: 10,000 companies cost $200.00.

Example input

{
  "companies": [
    {
      "companyNumber": "00445790",
      "vatNumber": "GB220430231"
    }
  ],
  "companiesHouseApiKey": "YOUR_KEY",
  "screenSanctions": true
}

Example output

Values below are illustrative.

{
  "companyNumber": "00445790",
  "name": "TESCO PLC",
  "status": "active",
  "incorporated": "1947-11-27",
  "activeOfficers": [
    {
      "name": "...",
      "role": "director"
    }
  ],
  "pscs": [],
  "vat": {
    "checked": false,
    "reason": "no HMRC token supplied"
  },
  "sanctions": {
    "listReportDate": "08-Oct-2026",
    "hits": []
  },
  "flags": []
}

Use it via API, schedules and integrations

Run it in Apify Console, or call it from your own code with the Apify API or the Python and JavaScript clients. Save an input as a task and add a schedule to run it regularly, and send results to Slack, email, webhooks, Zapier, Make or n8n with Apify integrations. AI agents can find and run it through the Apify MCP server.

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("sterlingverify/uk-company-check").call(run_input={"companies": [{"companyNumber": "00445790"}], "companiesHouseApiKey": "YOUR_COMPANIES_HOUSE_KEY"})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Use in Clay, Zapier, Make, n8n, Pipedream, Power Automate or Activepieces

All of them connect to Apify through their official Apify integrations, using your own Apify account: an API token from Apify Console > Settings > API & Integrations, or Apify sign-in for Power Automate. Runs bill to your Apify account at this Actor's pay-per-event price.

• Clay: save this Actor's input as an Apify task and copy it as JSON. In your Clay table, add the Run Apify Actor enrichment, choose it and paste the JSON into Input Data, mapping Clay columns into the fields. To pull a finished run into a new table, use the Import data from Apify Actor source.
• Zapier: use the Apify Run Actor action, or the Finished Actor run trigger followed by Fetch dataset items. Synchronous runs in Zapier stop after 30 seconds, so use the trigger for big batches.
• Make: add the Apify Run an Actor module with Run synchronously set to Yes, then Get Dataset Items with the run's dataset ID. For longer runs, use the Watch Actor Runs trigger.
• n8n: install the Apify node (@apify/n8n-nodes-apify, or search "Apify" on n8n Cloud) and use Run an Actor and get dataset.
• Pipedream: add the Apify app's Run Actor action, or Run Task Synchronously on one of this Actor's public example tasks (or your own saved task) to get the dataset items back in one step. For big batches, start from the New Finished Actor Run or New Finished Task Run trigger, then Get Dataset Items.
• Power Automate: add the Apify connector (a premium connector, currently in preview) and sign in with your Apify account. Use Run Actor with Enter custom value set to sterlingverify/uk-company-check and paste the input as JSON, then Get dataset items with the run's default dataset ID. For big batches, start the flow from the Actor run finished trigger instead.
• Activepieces: add the Apify piece and use Run Actor, or Run Task on one of this Actor's public example tasks (or your own saved task), then Get Dataset Items. For scheduled or big batches, use the Watch Actor Runs or Watch Task Runs trigger.
• Google Drive / Sheets: add Apify's Upload results to GDrive integration to a scheduled task to drop each run's CSV or XLSX into your team's Drive, or chain the Google Sheets Import & Export actor to append rows to a sheet.
• Slack alerts: add Apify's Slack integration to a scheduled task to post each run's results to your team channel, or start a check from Slack with /apify call and your task ID.
• Airtable: chain Apify's Airtable Data Import actor to append each run's rows to your base, de-duplicated by company number.
• Snowflake: install Apify's Snowflake Native App, run this Actor from Snowsight and load results straight into a table.
• Email digests: add Apify's Send results email via Gmail integration to a scheduled task to attach each run's CSV/JSON to your inbox.
• Microsoft Teams alerts: add an Apify webhook (HTTP request on run succeeded or failed) to a scheduled task, point it at a Teams Workflows incoming-webhook URL, and set the payload template to an Adaptive Card message so each run posts an alert into your channel.
• Airbyte: add Apify Dataset as a source in Airbyte (dataset ID + Apify API token) to move a run's results into Snowflake, BigQuery, Postgres or another Airbyte destination.
• Dify: install Apify's apify-integration plugin from the Dify Marketplace and use Run Actor as a tool in a Workflow or Chatflow, or point this Actor's Run succeeded HTTP webhook at a published Dify app's plugin endpoint to trigger it.
• Workato: install the Apify connector from Workato's Community library (Custom connectors), connect it with your Apify API token, and run this Actor inside a recipe or trigger a recipe when a run finishes.
• Any HTTP tool or script: send one request and get the results back as JSON. Runs must finish within 5 minutes.

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/sterlingverify~uk-company-check/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @input.json

FAQ

Do I need an API key?

Yes, a free Companies House API key. Without one the Actor runs in demo mode on bundled sample data, and demo results are not charged.

Does it include FCA Register data?

No. FCA Register data is deliberately not included because its terms prohibit bulk resale.

Disclaimer

You must bring your own free Companies House API key (and optionally an HMRC token); keys are passed as secret input and never stored. Sanctions results are a screening aid only, not legal advice; potential matches need human review. No FCA Register data is included (FCA terms prohibit bulk resale). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Platform usage is included in the per-event price; you pay only for results.

Related sterlingVerify tools

Part of the sterlingVerify UK payments, KYB and data toolkit on Apify Store:

• UK Director Search: every Companies House appointment for a director
• UK Sanctions Screener: fuzzy screening against the UK Sanctions List (FCDO)
• EU VAT Number Validator (VIES): bulk EU VAT number checks against VIES
• Merchant Website Compliance Checker for Onboarding: onboarding review of a merchant's website
• UK Bank Account Validator: UK sort code and account number modulus check