Validate industry risk using our NAICS code finder
Middesk’s NAICS code finder also retrieves SIC and MCC codes, so you can be sure what industries businesses are in and avoid risky or prohibited businesses.
Business Profiles
Coverage in the US
Update frequency
Business registries
What is a NAICS code finder?
A NAICS code finder is a tool that allows for looking up a business’s North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code. This code is a number that represents what industry a business is in, as standardized across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. A business may have more than one NAICS code.
Knowing what industry a business is in can be important from a risk assessment perspective. Certain industries may pose risks inherently due to their activities, because of current economic trends, or because they are prohibited for some other reason.
How the NAICS code finder works
Step 1
Place an Industry Classification order either when placing a Verify or TIN Match order, or stand-alone, through our dashboard or API.
Step 2
Specify the business name, office address, and (optionally) website URL of the business you want to find the NAICS code for.
Step 3
Middesk will classify businesses into any of the 300+ industry groups as defined by the NAICS standard, equivalent SIC, and MCC codes.
Step 4
Middesk identifies high-risk industries who you should not work with, and you can optionally order Web Analysis to instantly assess a business's entire web presence for risk.
Information you can get with our NAICS classification tool
Verifying a business with Middesk can also find other pieces of information needed for compliance purposes.
Middesk Compliance Data Sources
Data You Can Access
What Do You Need to Know?
Business industry classification (NAICS, SIC)
Do I know what the business makes and/or sells? Is it illegal, or does it have a high chance of involving criminal activity? Is it too heavily regulated for me to afford the extra compliance work and costs? Could it damage my brand image if I’m seen associating with it?
Business license
Does the business have the extra paperwork it needs to operate in a specific industry?
People associated with a business
Is there anyone who owns or is otherwise involved with the business who might present a criminal, financial, or reputational risk to me?
Business documents
Does the information on the business’s formation documents match what I know about what it makes and sells?
Business name, address, & phone number
Does the business have a physical presence and contact information that are registered with – and consistent across – government agencies and other regulators?
EIN / Business Tax ID
Does the business have a registered ID number for filing taxes in its jurisdiction?
Liens & litigations
Is the business in legal trouble, or in danger of losing its assets if it doesn’t pay off a debt?
Bankruptcy data
Has this business been bankrupt before, or is it in the process of filing for bankruptcy?
Watchlist hits & PEP screening
Are there restrictions or prohibitions on dealing with the business, its home country, or anyone associated with the business?
Applications for a NAICS lookup tool
Many organizations that provide financial services, platforms, and other resources need to know what industries potential client or partner businesses are in for risk assessment.
Fintechs
Fintechs may be able to get an edge by catering to types of businesses that might have a hard time getting served by legacy banks. However, this makes it even more important for them to know the kinds of risks they’re taking on and have solid contingency plans in place.
Insurance
Insurers need to know which industries their client businesses belong to so they can draft risk-appropriate policies. This also helps them exercise precautions – or even deny applications – when it comes to industries with a high risk of insurance fraud.
Commercial banking
Traditional commercial banks also need to be careful about the types of businesses they lend financial resources to. They need to guard against risks that certain industries might be in financial trouble, or have a high chance of businesses funneling money into crime.
Lenders
By knowing what economic activities a business looking to borrow is involved in, lenders can draw up loan terms appropriate to the industry’s risk level. They can even deny loans to businesses in industries where the money is likely to end up in criminal hands.
Marketplaces
Marketplace managers need to consider not only financial and criminal risk, but also reputational risk. They must ensure different types of businesses are comfortable working in the same space – and that customers are comfortable with this – in order to get established and grow.
Payments Service Providers (PSPs)
PSPs should also keep a close watch on potentially risky businesses in order to make sure the transactions they’re facilitating aren’t fraudulent or being used to send funds to malicious actors.
Industry-based risk assessment made easy with NAICS code finder
Clear industry classification for all code types
We classify businesses into any of the 300+ industry groups as defined by the NAICS standard, equivalent SIC, and MCC codes.
Remain compliant by flagging high-risk industries
Retrieve the industry of a business at the top of your funnel to quickly assess their risk profile.
Free analysts’ time from manual classification
Automatically identify high-risk industries you should not work with early in the onboarding assessment process.
Retrieve additional business verification information
Automatically retrieve information on a submitted business URL, including a screenshot, status, created date, and phone number.
Start searching with our NAICS lookup tool or get started with a dashboard today
What makes Middesk’s NAICS code finder different?
Get all classification codes
We retrieve not only the NAICS codes, but also equivalent SIC codes and Merchant Category Codes for a business you look up.
Confidence scores
We provide measures of how likely we’ve correctly identified a business’s industry, and how likely it is to be prohibited.
Fresh data
92% of our records are refreshed at least every month (or sooner), so you’ll know sooner if a business changes (or has recently changed) industries.
How Radius Bank finds more hours in the day with Middesk
“Every minute we’re able to save in processing loans is a minute faster than a small business will have access to the capital they need. With Middesk, what ordinarily would have taken us hours to do is now taking us minutes. We take pride in partnering with technology companies that help us serve our customers better.”
How Novo redefines its KYB process with Middesk’s verification product
“Middesk's market-leading methods challenge the established legacy approach to verification. Their product has unlocked significant efficiency, enhancing the onboarding experience for small businesses to access Novo. Middesk’s ground-up approach to product development played an integral part in increasing confidence in KYB, both internally and with partners.”
Driving team efficiency and performance with Clearco
“Middesk's Lien Search product has allowed my team to focus on value-add activities like making deals rather than tedious tasks like sifting through UCC portals. My team is faster and happier with getting business owners the capital they need to grow their businesses.”
Leveling up Plaid’s onboarding process with seamless KYB
“When a customer signs up for Plaid, they want to start building on our APIs right away. Middesk has been a critical partner enabling us to quickly and seamlessly onboard new customers.”
Frequently Asked Questions about NAICS search tools
There are several reasons why your organization would want to know another business’s NAICS code – and thus what industry that business operates in – for risk assessment purposes. One is criminal risk: is the business in an illegal industry, or one with a high rate of criminal activity, that you could be held liable for aiding?
Another is financial risk: how economically healthy is the business’s industry right now (or forecast to be in the near future)?
A third is reputational risk: is partnering with a business in this industry going to make the public critical of my brand, or make it difficult to attract other partners/clients?
Government agencies will sometimes informally assign a NAICS code to a business for the sake of completing their functions. However, businesses are generally allowed to choose which NAICS code they report when they are required to (e.g. on censuses, tax forms, or government contract applications).
Yes. If a business has diverse enough product or service offerings, it may apply more than one NAICS code to itself. For example, Apple Inc. is typically listed as having NAICS code 334111 (Electronic Computer Manufacturing), but is also sometimes listed as having the codes 334220 (Radio & Television Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment Manufacturing) or even 511210 (Software Publishers).
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes were the industry classification codes previously used by the United States. As the economies of the US, Canada, and Mexico became more deeply intertwined in the 1990s, the three nations jointly developed the NAICS system to replace and expand upon the SIC system. Some SIC codes can be crosswalked to their NAICS counterparts (and vice versa), and some US agencies still use the SIC system (such as the Securities & Exchange Commission).
Ultimately, this is a judgment call that each individual organization has to make. However, some businesses and industries are commonly considered “prohibited” to work with for reasons such as: inherently involving criminal activity; involving high rates of criminal activity due to insufficient regulations or enforcement; being heavily-regulated, and thus requiring increased compliance work & spending to partner with them; involving activities that run counter to society’s ethics (or at least an organization’s brand)
The automated and accurate NAICS tool you need
Get started with our NAICS code finder
