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Business Verification Entity checks, records, and verification workflows.Secretary of State API State lookups, fields, statuses, and integration decisions.Alternative Financing Underwriting and lending operations.Industry News Market moves, regulation, and alternative-finance developments.

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A GOOD PLACE TO BEGIN

Start with what you need

Learn a methodSOS API data coverage checklist ↗A practical way to compare state data and API coverage.See a customer exampleHow 1West automated SOS verification ↗A published customer case study.Meet CobaltFounder Jordan Hansen ↗The person and story behind Cobalt Intelligence.

Latest articles

Business Verification

Shela Heramis

September 25, 2026

September 24, 2026

17 Minutes Read

Direct SOS API Account vs Built-In Verification in Your Lending CRM: What Changes

A funder's guide to moving from a lending platform's built-in SOS check to a direct SOS API account: what the platform decided for you and what you now own.

Business Verification

Shela Heramis

September 25, 2026

September 24, 2026

17 Minutes Read

Verifying Broker-Submitted Applications Without a Merchant Portal: Backend SOS Checks

A backend pattern for verifying broker-submitted applications when no applicant types into a form: parsed inputs, state choice, async callbacks, cached then live lookups, and match rules.

Business Verification

Shela Heramis

September 25, 2026

September 24, 2026

17 Minutes Read

Is There a Bulk Download of Secretary of State Data? API, Batch CSV, and What Is Missing

A state-by-state inventory of bulk Secretary of State data, how batch CSV processing works on a lookup API, and what a lookup API will not deliver.

Secretary of State API

Shela Heramis

September 25, 2026

September 24, 2026

17 Minutes Read

Does Delaware Show LLC Owners or Officers? What Lenders Get and What They Do Instead

Delaware requires no member or manager names for an LLC. What the registry returns, what the CDD rule expects, and where lenders document the people behind a Delaware LLC.

Secretary of State API

Shela Heramis

September 25, 2026

September 24, 2026

17 Minutes Read

The Registered Agent Is Not the Owner: Reading Agents and Officers on an SOS Record

A guide for underwriting and compliance leads on why the registered agent is not the owner, what SOS officer fields can establish, and how to route ownership evidence.

Business Verification

Shela Heramis

September 25, 2026

September 24, 2026

17 Minutes Read

Can You Search Secretary of State Records by a Person Name? Finding an Owner's Businesses

A guide to searching Secretary of State records by a person name: state support, name versus identity, and how Cobalt's SOS API, Find Related Businesses, and Full Verification fit.

Secretary of State API

Shela Heramis

September 25, 2026

September 24, 2026

16 Minutes Read

SOS API Rate Limits: Why Live Lookups Throttle Per State and How to Design for Queueing

Why SOS API rate limits work per state, how to tell a 429 from a 202 retryId, and how to build per-state queues, retries, callbacks, and cache fallbacks.

Secretary of State API

Shela Heramis

September 25, 2026

September 24, 2026

17 Minutes Read

Every Field Is Optional: How to Type and Test Secretary of State API Responses by State

A typing and testing guide for Secretary of State API responses: every field optional, absent versus null versus empty, the five test modes, and per-state fixtures.

Business Verification

Shela Heramis

September 25, 2026

September 24, 2026

17 Minutes Read

Does a Secretary of State API Return the EIN? Why Florida Differs and What TIN Checks Add

Why almost no state record carries the EIN, what Florida's statutes change, and how lenders confirm a name plus EIN pairing against IRS records.

Secretary of State API

Shela Heramis

September 25, 2026

September 24, 2026

17 Minutes Read

When to Search by SOS ID, Not Business Name: Texas Punctuation and Ohio Silent Misses

When to search by SOS ID instead of business name: Cobalt's field spreadsheet marks ID search for neither Texas nor Ohio, so confirm it state by state and know the name route.