Welcome to Baselayer!
What is Baselayer
Baselayer helps financial institutions, fintechs, and marketplaces verify business identity and assess risk through real-time data and simple APIs. Whether you're onboarding merchants, underwriting loans, or monitoring existing customers, Baselayer provides the structured, authoritative data you need to make confident decisions.
This documentation will help you understand how business verification works, which products to use, and how to integrate Baselayer into your workflows.
First Steps
Understanding the basics of the challenge we are solving.
How to use your API keys correctly.
How to make your first Baselayer API request.
Build for forward compatibility with our API.
Leverage our sandbox environment during implementation.
Leverage Claude or ChatGPT to set up quickly your integration.
Baselayer Documentation Structure
Every Baselayer product follows the same core structure in this documentation. At a minimum, each product’s documentation includes these pages:
- Basics: what the product does, key concepts, terminology, and when to use it.
- API Quickstart: the fastest path to a successful first request (auth + a simple example).
- Best Practices: guidance on real-world usage - recommended workflows, edge cases, rate limits, and common pitfalls.
Some products may include additional pages when needed to explain product-specific behavior or advanced concepts. For example, Business Search includes a dedicated page for Scores & Ratings to clarify how scoring works and how to interpret results.
Baselayer Products
Foundation for all workflows - registration, TIN, sanctions, officers, risk scores.
Website discovery, industry prediction, digital legitimacy assessment.
Continuous monitoring for status changes, new liens, bankruptcies, sanctions.
Search liens and filings tied to businesses.
Identify litigation and bankruptcy history.
Verify consumers and support compliant identity workflows.
Typical Implementation Path
Most customers implement Baselayer in phases, starting with foundational products and expanding based on risk appetite and use case requirements.
| Phase | Products | When to Implement | Implementation Time | Typical Use Cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1: Foundation | • Business Search | Start here for all implementations | 1 week | All business onboarding, vendor verification |
| Phase 2: Online Presence | • Online Presence | Review the digital footprint of applicants | 1-2 weeks | Merchant underwriting and sole prop verification |
| Phase 3: Risk Enhancement | • Lien Search • Docket Search | Add for higher-value relationships or lending | 1-2 weeks | Business lending, factoring, large merchants |
| Phase 4: Ongoing Management | • Portfolio Monitoring | Implement for continuous risk tracking and compliance | 2 weeks | Regulatory compliance (CDD), ongoing risk management |
Use Cases
Baselayer supports diverse workflows across financial services and marketplaces:
Streamlined onboarding with faster verification and fewer false declines.
Underwrite merchants quickly and monitor risk as they scale.
Vet sellers at signup and continuously monitor for new risk.
Complete workflow to verify identity, credit and fraud risk.
Rapid credit decisions and collateral review.
Verify individuals behind small businesses and reduce fraud exposure.
Need Help?
- Implementation questions: Contact your Baselayer account manager
- Technical support: See FAQs or reach out to [email protected]
- API specifications: Browse the complete API Reference
- Status updates: Check the Baselayer Status Page for system health and maintenance windows
Ready to start? Head to Authentication to set up your API keys.