Fresh company data from public filings: sources by country

Why prospect from filings and registries in the first place

Outbound works best when your list reflects what’s happening right now. New incorporations, director changes, funding notices, new licenses, and address updates often show up in public records before they appear in data brokers. That time gap is the edge: you reach companies while they’re choosing vendors, hiring, and making early buying decisions.

Public sources usually fall into two buckets. Registries are the official “who exists” databases (company name, number, status, registered address, officers). Filings are the updates companies submit over time (annual reports, changes in ownership, share issues, new branches, dissolution notices). Together they give you the base record and the recent signals.

The goal isn’t to collect trivia. It’s to turn raw records into outreach-ready accounts you can actually contact and qualify. Done well, you end up with a list that’s current, specific, and easy to segment.

From registry-sourced data, you should be able to produce:

• A clean account record (legal name, country/region, website if present, industry hints)
• A trigger you can reference (formed recently, new director, new location)
• A best-guess buyer role (founder, finance lead, operations) based on company type and size
• A reason to prioritize (fits your ICP, shows activity, low competition)
• A compliant outreach plan (business contact details only, respectful cadence)

A quick legality and privacy note: public does not mean permissionless. Laws vary by country, and some registries include personal addresses for small business owners. Treat personal data carefully, prefer business emails and company contact channels, and honor opt-outs fast. If you use automation, keep it conservative and human.

What you can reliably learn from public sources

Registries and filings are best for facts a company (or regulator) had to record. Separate “verified basics” from “nice-to-have context.” That keeps your list accurate and saves time.

Most registries can reliably tell you:

• Legal company name and registration number
• Incorporation date and current status (active, dissolved, in liquidation)
• Registered address (sometimes also a principal office)
• Directors or officers (often names, sometimes appointment dates)
• Industry codes or business purpose (varies a lot)

Those basics help you spot company types that are outreach-friendly: newly registered firms, businesses that recently changed leadership, and teams opening a new location. In regulated industries, licenses and renewals can be especially clean triggers.

Filings can also surface signals you can use as triggers, but treat them as strong hints, not full stories. Examples include a new director appointment, an address change, an annual report posted, a new license granted, or a renewal date coming up. A bigger office address might suggest expansion, but it doesn’t prove budget or buying intent.

Registries often beat data vendors on freshness and accuracy of legal details, especially right after a company is created or updated. Vendors usually win on convenience: richer contact data, standardized fields, and fewer country-specific quirks. A practical approach is to use registries for truth (what exists, where, and since when), then enrich later.

Set expectations by country. Some places publish officer names and detailed filings; others show only minimal fields or require payment. Even when data is public, formatting can be inconsistent, and addresses may be a service office.

Example: you find a newly registered logistics company with a director appointment last month and a new office address. That’s enough to create an account and a relevant reason to reach out.

The data fields that make an account outreach-ready

Fresh data only helps if it lets you contact the right company with a clear reason. Focus on fields that let you (1) uniquely identify the business, (2) understand what it does, and (3) find a credible path to a decision-maker.

Start with identifiers that prevent duplicates and mix-ups. A legal name alone often isn’t enough, especially with “Holdings” and “Group” lookalikes. Pair it with a registration number, and when available a VAT or tax ID. That also makes it easier to match the company across other sources later.

Next, capture firmographics that shape relevance. The registered address, incorporation date, and industry codes (like NAICS or SIC) help you filter to your ICP and spot “newly formed” or “recently expanded” accounts. Industry codes aren’t perfect, but they’re consistent enough for first-pass filtering.

People data is where outreach becomes real. Directors, officers, and the registered agent (or company secretary in some countries) can point you to likely stakeholders. Titles matter more than names at first. If you see “Director” plus a recent filing, you have a starting angle.

A simple set of fields that usually makes an account usable:

• Legal name + registration number (and VAT/tax ID if present)
• Status (active/dissolved) + last filing date
• Address + country/region
• Industry code(s) + incorporation date
• Key roles listed (director/officer/agent) + any recent changes

Extra signals can raise priority. Subsidiaries can reveal buying groups, licenses can show compliance needs, and financials (when published) can help you size the account.

Example: if a company filed a change of directors last month and updated its registered address, that’s a natural trigger for outreach.

Where to find fresh company data (US, UK, EU, CA, AU/NZ)

Start with sources that update often and include clear identifiers (legal name, registration number, address, directors). Those details make it easier to match a company to the right website, industry, and decision-makers later.

United States

For public companies, SEC EDGAR is the most reliable place to spot events like planned fundraising, risk disclosures, and material changes.

For private companies, each state runs its own business registry. These registries are strong for new entity formations, registered agents, and official addresses.

If you sell to industries that buy equipment or take on financing, UCC filings can be a useful extra signal (where available). They can hint at purchases, lenders, and timing, but they’re not a guarantee of spend.

UK, EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand

Companies House in the UK is the fastest path to official filings, accounts, and director information.

In the EU, availability varies by country, but common starting points include Germany’s Handelsregister, France’s INPI, and the Netherlands’ KvK. Treat these as lead discovery sources: you may get strong legal details, but not always email-friendly fields.

Canada has both federal and provincial registries, so you may need to check the level where the company is incorporated.

Australia’s ASIC and the New Zealand Companies Office provide official registration details and updates that can act as clean triggers.

Practical tip: capture the registration number and the most recent filing date every time. Those two fields help you dedupe, segment by recency, and write a message that references a real change.

Where to find fresh company data (APAC, MENA, LATAM)

APAC and MENA can be strong for freshness because updates often hit official portals before they show up in large databases. The tradeoff is that access rules vary, and paid extracts are common.

In Singapore, the go-to is ACRA. You can usually search basic details, then purchase an extract for deeper fields. A practical trigger is a newly incorporated company in your target industry, followed by a first director appointment or a registered address update.

Hong Kong works similarly through the Companies Registry. Expect to find a basic profile quickly, but plan for paid extracts when you need names, filing history, or documents. Because many firms use service addresses, you often need one extra step: match the company name to a real operating site and market focus before outreach.

India is different in scale and detail. The MCA registry is rich, and filings can reveal directors, charges, and status changes. It’s a strong place to watch for fast-growing businesses, but names and formats can be inconsistent, so standardize company names and locations early.

In MENA, availability depends on the local authority. UAE and Saudi data often sits in emirate or region-level economic department portals, with different search screens and different depth. Sometimes you get a license-style record; sometimes you only get confirmation of existence.

Latin America is the most uneven. Many countries have official registries, but access, freshness, and fields differ widely by country and sometimes by state.

A simple way to turn these sources into outreach-ready accounts is to pick one repeatable trigger (for example, new registrations this month) and capture just enough to start: legal name, jurisdiction, status, and one decision-maker role or name. Then enrich the rest with light research before you send.

Plan your search: ICP, triggers, and a capture template

Good prospecting from registries starts before you open a database. If you skip this step, you’ll collect a pile of names you can’t contact or qualify.

Write your ideal customer profile (ICP) in plain words, like you’d explain it to a teammate. Keep it tight: industry (or a short list), size (employees or revenue band), and geography (country, state, or city). Add one “must have” and one “must not have” rule. Example: “B2B software companies in the UK with 10-100 employees, not agencies.”

Next, choose 2-3 triggers that signal a reason to reach out now. Public sources are best when you focus on change. Common triggers include:

• Newly incorporated company (last 30-90 days)
• New filing (annual return, confirmation statement, capital change)
• New address (expansion, HQ move)
• New director or officer (new decision-maker, growth phase)
• New subsidiary or name change (rebrand, restructure)

To make the data usable, capture the same fields every time. A simple spreadsheet works, as long as each column has a clear meaning:

• Company name + registry ID (your dedupe key)
• Country/region + city
• Trigger type + trigger date
• Company website (source or best guess)
• Contact hypothesis (role you will target) + research notes

Decide how often you’ll refresh the list and who owns it. Weekly is enough for most teams; daily only makes sense if you sell into very fast-moving segments. Assign one owner to update the sheet, and one owner to approve “ready for outreach.”

Small example: if you sell bookkeeping services, filter for newly incorporated firms in your service area, then tag “new director” as your angle.

Step-by-step: turn filings into a usable account list

Start small. Pull 25 to 100 companies from one registry report or one filing type (new incorporations, director changes, new licenses). That keeps the work doable and makes patterns obvious when you review results.

Clean the basics before you add anything else. Raw records are messy: legal suffixes, spelling variants, and repeated entries across days.

A simple workflow that works in a spreadsheet or CRM:

• Collect: company legal name, jurisdiction/country, filing date, registry ID, and filing type
• Normalize: standardize country names, date format (YYYY-MM-DD), and split common suffixes (Ltd, LLC) into a separate field
• De-dupe: match on registry ID first; if missing, match on normalized name + jurisdiction
• Enrich lightly: add only what you need to contact them (likely website, industry hint, best-guess size band)
• Tag the trigger: write one short reason like “newly incorporated,” “new director,” or “opened new location”

Avoid enrichment rabbit holes. If the website is unclear after a quick check, park the record for later instead of spending 20 minutes.

Set a quality bar before anything reaches outreach. For example, a record must have a unique ID, a valid country, a recent date, a website or clear trading name, and one trigger tag.

From account to message: quick research that pays off

The goal isn’t a full deep dive. It’s to avoid obvious mistakes and earn a simple, relevant reason to reach out.

Start by matching the legal entity from the filing to the real operating brand. Find the company site, then check the footer, About page, or contact page for the legal name, address, or registration number. This saves you from emailing a holding company when the product lives under a different brand.

A 7-minute research pass (enough for a good first email)

Skim for context that helps you write like a human:

• Product pages: what they sell and who it’s for
• Careers page: recent hiring signals (new team, new region, new function)
• News or press page: expansions, partnerships, funding, leadership changes
• Basic tech clues: booking flow, demo form, support widget, integrations

Then identify decision-makers by role instead of guessing names. If the trigger is hiring or expansion, look for roles like Head of Sales, VP Growth, Revenue Operations, or Marketing Director. If the trigger is a new entity registration or office address change, Operations, Finance, or a General Manager can be a better fit.

Turn the filing into a one-line “why now”

Use the filing as your timing hook. Example: “Noticed you registered a new UK entity last month. Are you building outbound to support the new region, or is it mainly for operations?” That line proves you did real research and gives them an easy way to reply.

Common mistakes and traps to avoid

Registries are useful, but they’re not a magic list of ready buyers. Most mistakes happen when people treat filings as truth instead of signals that need a quick check.

One trap is working from stale records. A company can be dissolved, acquired, renamed, or simply inactive while its entity still exists on paper. Always capture the filing date and add a simple “still operating?” check (recent job posts, recent news, active website, current directors).

Another trap is mixing legal entities with brands. Many groups have one legal name and a different trading name, plus multiple subsidiaries. If you email the wrong domain, you look careless and your replies (and deliverability) suffer. Confirm the brand website and match it to the entity address and country before you enrich contacts.

Over-collecting is another time sink. It feels productive to scrape every field, but it turns into busywork. Collect only what you’ll actually use in targeting, personalization, or routing.

Watch out for compliance issues, too. Rules vary by country, and “public” doesn’t mean “free to spam.” Use clear identification, keep messages relevant, honor opt-outs fast, and be extra careful with personal emails.

Finally, don’t start outreach from brand-new domains and mailboxes. Cold domains get flagged quickly.

A practical pre-flight check:

• Use only recent filings and record dates
• Confirm the right brand name and website for the entity
• Capture a small set of fields you’ll use
• Apply local rules and an opt-out process
• Warm up mailboxes before sending

Scoring and prioritizing registry-sourced accounts

Registry data is useful only if you can sort it fast. A simple score keeps you from spending an hour on a company that will never buy, while missing the one that just raised money or hired a new leader.

A simple scoring model

Use a 0 to 10 score built from three parts: fit, trigger strength, and reachability. Keep it easy enough that you’ll actually use it.

• Fit (0-4): industry match, employee band, location, and whether they look like your ideal customer
• Trigger strength (0-4): how urgent the event is, based on what the filing suggests
• Reachability (0-2): do you have a decision-maker role/name, a working domain, and a believable contact path

Write the score next to the account name, plus one sentence on why it earned it. That sentence is what makes the first email feel personal later.

High intent vs routine filings

Not all filings are equal. Annual returns and address updates can be useful, but they’re usually low intent. Prioritize events that signal change, budget, or a new need.

Stronger triggers often include:

• New entity formation in a category you sell into
• Funding, new directors/officers, or parent-subsidiary changes
• New office registration or expansion into a new region
• Insolvency warnings (good for cost-saving offers)
• Licensing/permits that indicate a new operation is starting

Batch sizing and notes that help sales

Quality drops when you over-collect. A good weekly batch is the amount you can research lightly and still send accurate outreach. For one person, that’s often 20 to 50 accounts per week.

For each account, capture notes in a consistent format: trigger date, what changed, the likely team impacted, and one angle for outreach. These notes become clean personalization fields later.

Example workflow: one person building 50 accounts per week

Assume you sell bookkeeping, fractional finance, or IT setup to newly registered companies. To keep it simple, pick one country registry and one weekly trigger. Example: UK Companies House, trigger = new incorporations in your target SIC codes every Monday.

Set a weekly time box: 2 hours to collect 50 accounts, 1 hour to enrich the best 15, 1 hour to launch outreach.

Capture the same fields every time so you can move fast and compare results later:

• Company name + registry number
• Incorporation date + trigger type (new registration, new director, new accounts)
• Registered city/region + industry code
• Likely buyer role (founder, ops, finance) and how you guessed it
• Website/domain (or “none yet”) + one proof point from the filing

Here are 5 sample accounts (fictional) captured from the same trigger:

Keep the “noticed your filing” line calm and practical. Mention one normal reason you look (new businesses often need help), then offer a small, useful next step.

Track replies by trigger and outcome. Even simple labels like “new incorporation” plus “positive, not now, wrong person” are enough.

Checklist and next steps (from data to outreach)

Before you hit send, do a quick quality pass. Small mismatches (a dissolved entity, the wrong domain, a stale address) waste time and hurt credibility.

Use this short pre-flight checklist:

• Confirm the basics: exact legal name, active status, and the most recent filing date you saw
• Match the company to the right website domain (not a directory listing or a similarly named business)
• Do a compliance check: record where the data came from, store only what you need, and be clear on purpose (B2B outreach), opt-outs, and retention
• Prepare deliverability: send from a properly authenticated domain, use warmed mailboxes, and ramp volume over days (not all at once)
• Set operations rules: every account has an owner, tags (ICP, trigger, source), and one clear next action (research, enrich, send, follow up)

Then move from “data” to “outreach.” Create a short account note that explains why the company is a fit (the trigger) and what you’re offering. Keep the first message short, and include an easy way to say “no” or unsubscribe.

After launch, treat replies as signals, not interruptions. You want a clean loop: send, track, categorize, and update the account so the next touch is smarter.

If you want to keep the mechanics simple, LeadTrain (leadtrain.app) brings domains, mailboxes, warm-up, multi-step sequences, and reply classification into one place, so you spend less time on setup and sorting and more time responding to the right conversations.