Delaware company search: what you can find, and what you cannot

Delaware is where many US companies are formed, and its register is not open data. Here is what Delaware itself offers, which Delaware entities an API can find, and which it cannot.

The short version

The Delaware Division of Corporations offers a search page for entities and paid services for status and documents. Delaware does not publish its register as open data. The Prometiam API therefore does not serve the Delaware register and cannot look up an arbitrary Delaware company by its file number.

It does serve the Delaware entities that appear in three other places: those that hold an LEI, those that file with the SEC, and the foreign registrations that Delaware companies have in New York, Colorado, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

What Delaware offers

The Division of Corporations has a public entity search by name or file number, which answers whether an entity exists and gives basic details. Certified status (good standing) and copies of documents are paid services. That is a search page and a document service, not a dataset that anyone can download or call from code, which is why many Delaware searches end on the state's own page.

What the API serves for Delaware

• LEI holders (GLEIF): A Delaware entity that holds a Legal Entity Identifier is served under its Delaware number, for example DE-10684990 (Squarepoint Oil Trading LLC), with its LEI, legal form and addresses. GLEIF data is open (CC0).
• SEC filers (CIK): A company that files with the SEC and is incorporated in Delaware is served with Delaware as its jurisdiction. It can be found by its CIK- number; see SEC EDGAR company search API.
• Foreign registrations in four states: A Delaware company registered in New York, Colorado, Connecticut or Pennsylvania has a record in each, marked foreign, with jurisdiction DE. Each registration is its own record with its own state number.

Where these overlap, one record carries all of them: the LEI and state number are matched exactly, and an SEC filer by its exact registered name in its state of incorporation, never by a fuzzy match.

What you will not find

• A Delaware company that holds no LEI, files nothing with the SEC and is registered in none of New York, Colorado, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
• A Delaware file number as such: company_number takes the numbers the API serves (a state number, CIK- or LEI-), not a number from the Division of Corporations.
• Delaware officers, registered agents or a certificate of good standing. The US record carries no officers, and a certificate is a document the state issues.
• The status of a Delaware entity from Delaware itself. A Delaware record from an LEI or the SEC says what those sources say, not whether Delaware considers the entity in good standing.

In code

The record says where the company was formed (jurisdiction) and where it is registered (registration_state), so a New York record of a Delaware company reads as registered in New York, formed in Delaware.

Company records from the business registers of New York, Colorado, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, plus SEC filers (EDGAR) and LEI holders (GLEIF) from every state, Delaware included. One record per state registration, domestic or foreign. New York and Pennsylvania publish active entities only. Updated weekly. No officers; register-change events (dated by the weekly read) and monitoring; no VAT number; sole proprietorships are never served. It is not every US company.

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FAQ

Can I search the Delaware register through an API?
Not the register itself. Delaware does not publish it as open data. The Prometiam API finds Delaware entities that hold an LEI, that file with the SEC, or that are registered as foreign companies in New York, Colorado, Connecticut or Pennsylvania.

Why is a Delaware company missing from the results?
Because it is outside those sources: it has no LEI, no SEC filing and no registration in the four states. The API is not every US company, and it is not the whole Delaware register.

What does Delaware offer itself?
The Division of Corporations has an entity search page, and status certificates and documents are paid services. There is no open dataset.

What does a foreign registration mean?
A Delaware company that operates in New York registers there as a foreign entity. That is a separate New York record with its own number, marked foreign, with Delaware as the jurisdiction of formation.

Where can I try it?
The free US company lookup runs the same call with a shared key.

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US sources: New York Department of State, Colorado Secretary of State, Connecticut Secretary of the State, Pennsylvania Department of State (open data), SEC EDGAR, GLEIF (CC0).