Public Registers Every Evaluator Should Know
A public register is an official record of companies, filings, or identities that anyone can consult, and it is the first place a claim should be checked. Before paying for data, most of what an evaluator needs to verify corporate existence, funding, and standing is available for free in a handful of official registers. This is a working guide to the ones worth knowing, what each proves, and, just as importantly, what none of them can tell you.
When a deck says a company exists, raised a round, or is incorporated somewhere, those are checkable facts, and the authoritative source is almost never the company's own website. It is a public register: a government or official body's record that exists precisely so that third parties can verify. Evaluators who reach for a paid data terminal first often miss that the primary source is free, more authoritative, and closer to the truth than the aggregator sitting on top of it.
This guide covers the core registers by geography, SIRENE in France, EDGAR in the United States, Companies House in the United Kingdom, and GLEIF globally, what each one is good for, how they fit together, and the honest limit that applies to all of them: a register proves an entity exists and what it filed, not that a specific claim about it is true.
Why the register beats the aggregator
A paid database is a convenience layer over public records. It aggregates, cleans, and enriches, which is genuinely useful, but it introduces two costs. First, it is one step removed from the source, so an error in the aggregator is an error you inherit without seeing the original. Second, its data is licensed, which limits what you can redistribute or show, a real constraint if your evaluation has to be shared or defended.
The register underneath has neither problem. It is the authoritative record, and it is public, so what you find there is yours to cite. The aggregator has its place for coverage and speed, but for verifying a specific company's existence, filings, or standing, the primary source is both more trustworthy and freer to use. Knowing the registers directly is what lets you check a claim rather than trust a middle layer.
France: SIRENE
SIRENE is the French national register of businesses and their establishments, maintained by INSEE. Every registered French company has a SIREN number identifying the legal entity and a SIRET for each establishment, and the base is openly accessible. It is the authoritative answer to "does this French company legally exist, since when, under what activity, and where."
For an evaluator, SIRENE confirms legal existence, age, and official activity classification, the foundational facts a French startup's claims rest on. It will not tell you whether the company is any good, but it will tell you instantly whether the entity behind the pitch is real and how long it has actually been around, which is often the first thing a polished deck is vague about.
United States: EDGAR
EDGAR is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's system for company filings. Public companies file their financials there, and, more relevant for startups, private companies that raise under certain exemptions file notices such as Form D for private placements, and offerings under crowdfunding rules leave records too. It is public, searchable, and authoritative for what companies have formally disclosed to the SEC.
For startup evaluation, EDGAR is where a U.S. funding claim can be checked against what the company actually filed. A round announced in a deck should have a corresponding trace if it was structured in a way that requires a filing, and the absence or shape of that filing is information. EDGAR does not cover everything a private company does, but for formal disclosures it is the source of record.
United Kingdom: Companies House
Companies House is the UK registrar of companies, and it is unusually rich for a free register. It holds incorporation details, registered officers and directors, filing history, and annual accounts, much of it available without charge. For a UK company, it answers existence, standing, who the officers are, and, through filed accounts, a real window into the company's finances.
That officer and accounts data is what makes Companies House especially useful: it is one of the few free sources that gets you past "does it exist" to "who runs it and what do its filed numbers say." For an evaluator, that is a lot of verifiable ground covered before spending a cent.
Global: GLEIF and the LEI
GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, maintains the open register of Legal Entity Identifiers, the LEI, a standardized global ID for legal entities that participate in financial transactions. Where national registers each have their own numbering, the LEI is a single identifier that resolves an entity consistently across borders, and the GLEIF database is free and open.
For an evaluator working across geographies, GLEIF is the tool for disambiguation and cross-border identity: confirming that the entity named in a deck is the same one referenced elsewhere, and resolving the "which of these five similarly named companies is it" problem that national registers alone cannot always settle. Not every startup has an LEI, but where one exists it is a clean anchor for identity.
The limit that applies to all of them
Here is the discipline that keeps register work honest, and it applies to every source above. A register proves that an entity exists and what it has filed. It does not prove that a specific claim about that entity is true. Matching a company name in SIRENE confirms the company is real; it says nothing about whether its stated traction, market size, or partnership is accurate. Finding a Form D on EDGAR confirms a filing was made; it does not confirm the round was the size the deck implies.
This is the single most common error in verification: treating "the entity exists" as if it settled "the claim is true." It does not. Registers verify existence, standing, and formal filings, the skeleton of a company. The claims built on top, the numbers, the relationships, the projections, have to be checked against other evidence, and some of them cannot be settled from public sources at all and should be marked to-confirm rather than assumed. A register is where verification starts, not where it ends.
Frequently asked questions
What is a public register? A public register is an official, publicly consultable record of companies, filings, or identities, maintained by a government or official body. Examples include SIRENE in France, EDGAR in the U.S., Companies House in the UK, and the GLEIF LEI database globally. They are the authoritative primary source for verifying that an entity exists and what it has filed.
Are these registers free to use? Yes. SIRENE, EDGAR, Companies House, and GLEIF are all openly accessible at no cost for the core lookups an evaluator needs. Paid data terminals aggregate and enrich this information, but the underlying registers are the free, authoritative source, and unlike licensed aggregator data, what you find in them is yours to cite.
Which register do I use for a funding claim? For a U.S. company, EDGAR holds formal filings such as Form D for private placements. For a UK company, Companies House filing history and accounts. National coverage of private funding varies, so a missing filing is not always proof of nothing, but the register is where a formal funding claim should first be checked.
Can a register confirm a company's traction or market size? No. A register proves existence, standing, and what was filed, not whether a specific business claim is true. Confirming a company is real in SIRENE says nothing about whether its stated traction is accurate. Those claims must be checked against other evidence, and some cannot be settled from public sources at all.
What is an LEI and when do I need it? An LEI is a standardized global Legal Entity Identifier maintained in the open GLEIF register. It is most useful for cross-border work and disambiguation: confirming that an entity named in one place is the same one referenced elsewhere. Not every startup has one, but where it exists it is a clean anchor for identity.
The bottom line
Most of what an evaluator needs to verify a company's existence, age, officers, and filings is free and authoritative in a handful of public registers: SIRENE, EDGAR, Companies House, and GLEIF. Learn what each proves, reach for the primary source before the paid aggregator, and hold the one discipline that keeps it honest: a register confirms that an entity exists and what it filed, never that a claim about it is true. That is where verification begins.
How this shows up in Deckwise
Deckwise's verification runs registers first, then sourced web search for what registers cannot answer, exactly the order this guide describes. Across the pipeline it checks a candidate's material claims against official records where they apply, credits a claim only when the evidence supports the claim itself rather than just the existence of an entity, and marks honestly what public sources cannot settle. The result is verification that starts from authoritative, citable sources and stays disciplined about the difference between "this company exists" and "this claim is true."
Related: The Verification Layer in Deal Flow · The Complete Guide to Startup Due Diligence · The Deckwise Method