In the funding industry, trust and transparency are essential. For Erable, a company committed to funding high-impact projects and a specialist in revenue-based financing for startups, verifying the legitimacy of businesses it works with is a non-negotiable part of the investment process. That’s why the team turned to Topograph, a solution designed to ease KYB (Know Your Business) procedures by providing real-time access to company data and documents.
The Challenge
When People Invest Through Companies
Erable finances a wide range of responsible investment opportunities through platforms like WE DO GOOD, Keenest, erable°app, ...
First, they carefully select projects through a thorough due diligence process before proposing them for investment. Individuals do not always invest directly; instead, they may use a corporate structure, such as a holding company, especially when investing in a startup.
In short, Erable often works with newly established companies, whether looking for funding or as investors, that need to provide proof of legal existence.
When this occurs, Erable must perform a full KYB check. That includes confirming the company’s legal existence, verifying its registration details, identifying its directors and legal representatives, and tracing its ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs). Additionally, they need to collect and validate official documents such as trade register extracts and UBO forms.
Before using Topograph, this process was complex, slow, and resource-intensive.
Manual Checks, Fragmented Data, Slow Onboarding
Erable’s team usually faced several operational challenges when conducting KYB manually.
For example, as detailed in WE DO GOOD’s selection criteria, the project owners (a) must be legal entities registered in the Eurozone, the UK, or Switzerland, and (b) provide identity documents, criminal record checks, and financial statements before being presented to investors. However, sourcing documents from official registers often meant navigating fragmented or hard-to-access databases, especially when dealing with companies registered abroad.
Identifying UBOs was particularly difficult in cases involving indirect or layered ownership structures. As a result, onboarding new investors or new projects could take days, and sometimes longer.
This manual approach was incompatible with Erable’s mission to act quickly while upholding rigorous compliance and transparency standards.
How Topograph Solved the Problem
Topograph offered an immediate solution: a platform to access official business registers in real time. With a simple web interface and powerful API, Topograph enables Erable to retrieve structured information directly from public company records in more than 20 countries.
Since integrating Topograph into their onboarding workflow, Erable can:
- Search for any company by name or registration number.
- Access a comprehensive company profile, including legal status, registration information, address, and management team.
- Identify shareholders and UBOs.
- Instantly retrieve official documents, including company statutes, register extracts, and financial statements.
The process is fast, auditable, and scalable. It made manual operations the exception at Erable, when it used to be the norm.
Results: Faster Compliance, Lower Risk
Since adopting Topograph, Erable has significantly reduced the time required to complete due diligence and KYB. The team now has direct access to reliable, up-to-date information that strengthens internal risk controls and ensures full regulatory compliance. This efficiency also improves their credibility with co-investors and partners, reinforcing trust.
Equally important, it allows Erable to stay true to its values: promoting a more transparent, ethical, and responsible financial system.
KYB as a Strategic Enabler
Erable’s use of Topograph illustrates how KYB, often seen as a regulatory hurdle, can become a strategic advantage. Reliable company verification doesn’t just reduce risk: it enables growth, streamlines operations, and upholds the integrity of the investment process.
With solutions like Topograph, responsible finance is no longer the domain of large institutions alone. Agile, impact-focused organizations can now operate with the same level of rigor and assurance.