KYB vs KYC: Understanding Business Verification

KYC (Know Your Customer) verifies that an individual is who they claim to be. KYB (Know Your Business) verifies that a legal entity is legitimate — and identifies the real people who own and control it. The distinction matters because a business is not a person: it can have layers of ownership, complex structures, and multiple individuals with control who never appear on a customer-facing form.

Many compliance teams treat KYB as "KYC but for companies," running limited document checks on the business itself and stopping there. That is a gap that regulators are actively closing — beneficial ownership requirements, entity AML screening, and officer verification are all now standard expectations in a corporate onboarding programme.

Key takeaways

• KYC verifies individuals: document check + biometric liveness + AML screening on a person. KYB verifies legal entities: registry data, UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner) identification, officer verification, and entity-level AML.
• A closed-loop KYB session automatically spawns a KYC session for each identified UBO — verifying the entire ownership chain in one workflow, with no manual coordination.
• Didit KYB covers registry lookup, UBO extraction, officer data, entity AML, and document verification. Pricing starts at $2.00 per company.
• Business entity statuses — ACTIVE, FLAGGED, BLOCKED — map to your workflow the same way KYC statuses do, through the same unified /v3/ API.
• KYB and KYC are complements, not substitutes: consumer platforms need KYC; platforms with business customers need KYB; most complex platforms need both running in the same workflow.

What KYC is

KYC — Know Your Customer — is the set of checks used to verify an individual's identity: who they are, whether their documents are authentic, whether their face matches their document, and whether they appear on AML (Anti-Money Laundering) watchlists.

A typical KYC flow runs document verification, passive liveness, face match, and IP analysis, then returns a decision: Approved, In Review, or Declined. Didit's KYC core flow costs $0.33 per verification — document $0.15, passive liveness $0.10, face match $0.05, IP analysis $0.03 — with 500 free checks per month and no minimums.

KYC answers one question: can we confirm that this person is who they say they are?

What KYB is

KYB — Know Your Business — answers a different set of questions: is this company a real, legally registered entity? Who owns it? Who controls it? Does the entity or any of its principals appear on AML watchlists?

The information sources are different from KYC: company registries, corporate filings, beneficial ownership registers, and officer databases — not passports and selfies. The subjects are different too: a company can have multiple UBOs (each owning 25% or more), multiple directors, and a chain of intermediary holding companies above the entity being onboarded.

The output is also different: a company profile with an ownership structure, a list of key people, and an entity-level risk assessment — alongside individual verification for every UBO.

How KYB works: five checks

Didit's KYB session runs five checks, each independently enabled in your workflow:

1. Registry lookup — pulls the official company record from the government registry in the entity's jurisdiction. Confirms legal name, registration number, address, legal form, and status (active, dissolved, in liquidation).

2. UBO extraction — parses the ownership structure and identifies individuals holding 25% or more of shares or voting rights, or otherwise holding ultimate beneficial ownership. Returns name, nationality, ownership percentage, and relationship to the entity.

3. Officer data — identifies directors and other officers of record: name, role, and appointment date.

4. Entity AML — runs the company itself through watchlist screening: sanctions lists, PEP-connected entities, adverse media. Answers whether the business is directly subject to sanctions or has known adverse exposure independent of its owners.

5. Document verification — verifies company documents (articles of association, certificate of incorporation, proof of registered address) at $0.20 per document.

Together, these five checks produce a company profile with an ACTIVE, FLAGGED, or BLOCKED status.

The closed-loop differentiator

Most KYB programmes identify UBOs and then handle their individual verification in a separate, manual process: export a list, send forms, wait. The gap between identifying a UBO and verifying them is where compliance risk accumulates — and where the most common KYB audit findings originate.

Didit's closed-loop model closes that gap: a KYB session can automatically spawn a KYC session for each identified UBO. The parent KYB session holds. Each UBO receives a verification link and completes document and biometric verification. When all linked KYC sessions resolve, the KYB session updates its status.

Each UBO's KYC session runs at standard User Verification rates — the same modules, same pricing, same decision engine as any individual KYC check. No separate workflow, no separate console, no manual coordination across teams.

A company with three UBOs generates one KYB session and three linked KYC sessions — all managed from the same workflow, all visible in the same Business Console.

The difference in practice

	KYC	KYB
Subject	Individual person	Legal entity
Primary data sources	Identity document, biometric	Company registry, ownership filings
Key outputs	Identity confirmed, document authentic, face matched, AML cleared	Entity active, UBOs identified and verified, officers confirmed, entity AML cleared
Typical trigger	Consumer account opening	Business account opening, merchant onboarding, loan origination
Price	From $0.33 (full core flow)	From $2.00 per company

Use cases

Fintech B2B payments — a payment platform onboarding business customers must verify the entity and the people behind it. KYB with linked UBO KYC covers both obligations from a single session, with one audit trail.

Crypto exchanges with institutional clients — institutional and corporate accounts carry heightened due diligence requirements. Registry lookup, entity AML, and officer verification address the three standard KYB obligations in one workflow.

SME lending — a lender needs to know that the borrowing entity is solvent and legitimate, and that the guarantors (often the UBOs) are who they claim. KYB plus linked UBO KYC sessions handle both sides of the credit due diligence process.

Marketplace merchant onboarding — marketplaces with business sellers face KYB obligations at onboarding and ongoing monitoring obligations as business conditions change. Didit's Ongoing AML Monitoring rescreens both the entity and linked individuals daily.

How Didit helps

Didit Business Verification covers all five KYB checks from a single session, with closed-loop linked KYC for each UBO. KYB pricing starts at $2.00 per company for registry lookup, UBO extraction, officer data, and entity AML. Document verification is $0.20 per document. Linked KYC sessions bill at standard User Verification rates.

Create a KYB session the same way as a KYC session — via POST /v3/session/ with a KYB workflow ID:

curl -X POST https://verification.didit.me/v3/session/ \
  -H "x-api-key: $DIDIT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "workflow_id": "your-kyb-workflow-id",
    "vendor_data": "company_4821",
    "callback": "https://yourapp.com/webhooks/didit"
  }'

The session returns a session.url for the business representative to complete. Once entity data is submitted, registry lookup, UBO extraction, and entity AML run automatically. UBO KYC sessions are created and linked, and the parent session resolves when all checks complete.

Business entities are also accessible via the /v3/businesses/ management API — list, filter, and update entity records as ownership structures evolve.

Frequently asked questions

How much does KYB cost?

KYB starts at $2.00 per company, covering registry lookup, UBO extraction, officer data, and entity AML. Document verification is $0.20 per document. Linked KYC sessions for each UBO bill at standard User Verification rates — $0.33 for the full core flow (document + liveness + face match + IP analysis).

Does KYB replace KYC?

No. KYB verifies a legal entity and its ownership structure; KYC verifies the individual people behind it. Didit's closed-loop model runs both automatically from one KYB session — the parent KYB session spawns KYC sessions for each identified UBO.

What is the 25% ownership threshold?

Most AML frameworks define a UBO as anyone owning or controlling 25% or more of a company's shares or voting rights. Didit's UBO extraction surfaces individuals meeting this threshold, plus anyone exercising equivalent control through other means (board control rights, veto rights, equivalent authority).

What jurisdictions does registry lookup cover?

Didit covers registries across 220+ countries. Coverage depth varies by jurisdiction — some registries expose full UBO data, others expose directors only. Where registry data is incomplete, document-based verification fills the gap.

How does ongoing monitoring work for business customers?

Business entities enrolled in Ongoing AML Monitoring are rescreened daily — entity-level AML plus any linked individual UBOs. A designation or adverse-media hit on the entity or any UBO triggers an alert immediately, with a webhook notification to your system.

Ready to get started?

Read the Business Verification overview in the docs, see the full product on the Business Verification product page, and check pricing on the pricing page. When you're ready, start free — the same Business Console handles both KYB and KYC, and your first 500 identity checks are free every month.