Bridge
Contact us
Identity & KYCLive

Know the business, and the people behind it.

KYB for the businesses your customers run.

Talk to us about business verificationAPI reference →
Illustrative
Why it matters

What it changes for you.

When your customers are businesses, the risk isn't only the company: it's the directors who run it and the people who own it. A registration certificate on its own tells you the business exists, not who you are dealing with.

Business verification records the business, its directors and its beneficial owners, each as an identity in their own right, with the same graded facts as any customer.

That gives you one place to see who controls a business before you let it collect money, pay out or open accounts for its own customers.

How it works

Step by step.

  1. Register the business

    Name, registration number, address and what it does, each stored as a fact with how it was checked.

  2. Add the people behind it

    Directors and beneficial owners, with their share of ownership. Each person is verified like any customer.

  3. Collect documents once

    Certificates, memoranda and proof of address are recorded against the business, not scattered across emails.

  4. Decide, and record why

    Approve the business for the products it needs, with the facts you relied on kept beside the decision.

What you can switch on

Built in, not bolted on.

Business as an identity

The business has its own record and facts, separate from the people who run it.

Directors and owners

Each director and beneficial owner is a verified person with their share recorded.

Graded facts

Registration details, addresses and ownership each say how they are known.

Documents in one place

Evidence sits against the business, ready for review or audit.

Screened with the rest

Businesses and their people go through the same screening as individual customers.

Changes over time

New directors, new owners and new addresses are recorded as changes, with history kept.

  • Verify businesses and the people behind them
  • Documents and checks recorded with grades
Use cases

How businesses use it.

Illustrative businesses, not customers. Figures are made up to show the flow.

A food delivery marketplace in Lagos · Marketplaces

Onboarding sellers before they collect

Restaurants sign up to sell on the marketplace and receive payouts every day. The marketplace needs to know who it is paying before money leaves.

  1. The restaurant registers as a business with its registration details
  2. The owner and any co-director verify their BVNs
  3. The marketplace approves the restaurant for collections and payouts
  4. Payouts go only to an account that belongs to the business

The marketplace pays businesses it has verified, and can show who owns every one of them.

Illustrative

An MFB opening accounts for SMEs in Ibadan · Banks, MFBs & PSBs

Corporate accounts at a microfinance bank

Relationship officers collect company documents on paper and re-type them into three systems. Compliance can't see who owns the businesses until month end.

  1. Officers record the business and its owners once, at the branch
  2. Each owner is verified as a person, with their share
  3. Compliance reviews the same record the officer created
  4. The account opens when the record is complete

One record from branch to compliance, with ownership visible the day the account opens.

Illustrative

A procurement platform in Port Harcourt · Payroll & HR platforms

Know which suppliers you are paying

The platform pays hundreds of suppliers for oil-services companies. Auditors keep asking who owns each supplier and whether any are linked to staff.

  1. Every supplier is registered as a business with its owners
  2. Owners are verified and screened
  3. Payouts go only to verified suppliers' own accounts
  4. Auditors read ownership straight from the records

The platform can show who it paid and who owns them, without a spreadsheet hunt.

Illustrative
Bridge Payments

Onboard sellers with Bridge Payments

See Bridge Payments
Who uses it

Built into these products.

Banks, MFBs & PSBs

Add offline payments and new products to the channels you already run.

Banks, MFBs & PSBs

Marketplaces

Collect, hold and split, so buyers and sellers both trust you.

Marketplaces
For developers

Add a business to an account holder.

Endpoints in the Business verification API reference, with every parameter and response.

State changes arrive as signed webhooks. How webhooks work

POST /accountholder/{type}/{value}/business

curl -X POST "https://api.bridgemoni.com/accountholder/b3f1c2d4-5e6a-4b7c-8d9e-0f1a2b3c4d5e/b3f1c2d4-5e6a-4b7c-8d9e-0f1a2b3c4d5e/business" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BRIDGEMONI_TOKEN" \
  -H "X-Tenant: $BRIDGEMONI_TENANT" \
  -H "X-Environment: $BRIDGEMONI_ENV" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "legalName": "Ada Obi",
    "tradingName": "Ada Obi",
    "registrationNumber": "identification number",
    "registrationCountryCode": "NG",
    "registrationAuthority": "Ada Obi",
    "businessType": "category",
    "registrationType": "category",
    "industry": "category",
    "registrationDate": "2027-03-14",
    "website": "unified resource identifier",
    "taxResidences": [
      {
        "taxIdentificationNumber": "identification number",
        "countryCode": "NG",
        "taxIdentificationType": "TIN"
      }
    ],
    "addresses": [
      {
        "addressType": "POSTAL",
        "streetName": "street name",
        "buildingNumber": "house number",
        "postCode": "101241",
        "town": "Lagos",
        "district": "district code",
        "province": "province",
        "countryCode": "NG",
        "landmark": "landmark"
      }
    ],
    "contacts": [
      {
        "emailAddress": "ada@example.com",
        "msisdn": "+2348012345678",
        "preferredChannel": "SMS",
        "preferredLanguageCode": "language code"
      }
    ],
    "beneficiaryOwners": [
      {
        "givenName": "first name",
        "familyName": "last name",
        "fullName": "Ada Obi",
        "nationalityCountryCode": "NG",
        "identifications": [
          {
            "...": "nested"
          }
        ],
        "ownershipPercentage": 1,
        "ownershipControl": "Ada Obi",
        "sanction": {
          "...": "nested"
        },
        "verification": {
          "...": "nested"
        }
      }
    ],
    "expectedActivity": {
      "monthlyVolume": 250000.0,
      "currencyCode": "NGN",
      "purpose": "March payroll"
    },
    "sanction": {
      "politicallyExposureStatus": true,
      "sanctionMatchStatus": true,
      "sanctionSources": [
        "Ada Obi"
      ],
      "adverseMediaFound": true,
      "lastScreenDateTime": "2027-03-14T14:30:01",
      "nextScreenDateTime": "2027-03-14T14:30:01"
    },
    "risk": {
      "level": "category",
      "score": 1,
      "cddLevel": "category",
      "riskFactors": [
        {
          "...": "nested"
        }
      ],
      "accessedDateTime": "2027-03-14T14:30:01",
      "reviewDate": "2027-03-14"
    },
    "verification": {
      "assuranceLevel": 1,
      "verificationDateTime": "2027-03-14T14:30:01"
    }
  }'

Questions about business verification

Do directors need to sign up themselves?

No. You can record them, and verify them when they provide their details. Each is a person with their own graded facts.

Can one person own several businesses?

Yes. The same verified person can be linked to each business they direct or own.

Does this replace our compliance review?

No. It gives your reviewers one complete record to decide on, and keeps their decision with it.

Related capabilities

Identity & KYC

Live

Tiered onboarding, limits that rise automatically, graded identity records.

PediID sign-in

Next

Federated sign-in with consented field sharing.

Accounts

Live

Multi-currency customer accounts with point-in-time balances, liens and statements.

Bridge for Business

Tell us what you're building.

We'll come back with what's live for you today, and what's next.

Talk to usRead the docs