The short answer
Entity resolution is the process of deciding which records, across different sources, refer to the same real-world company or person — so that a registry entry, a filing, a court case and a news article are correctly tied to one subject, and not to a namesake.
At a glance
- Term
- Entity resolution
- Also known as
- record linkage · company matching
- Category
- Method & analysis
- Where it matters
- Company and founder due diligence
Entity resolution in practice
Names are ambiguous and formatted differently in every source. Identifiers — national company numbers, LEIs, SEC CIKs, tax and entity IDs — are far more reliable, but not every record carries one.
Good resolution starts from identifiers, falls back carefully to names plus corroborating attributes, and keeps track of how confident each link is.
Why entity resolution matters
- Every later finding is only as good as the identity it is attached to.
- Bad resolution creates both false alarms and missed risks.
Entity resolution in MarketPrior
Before any search runs, MarketPrior resolves the company against company registers and global identifiers — LEI, national company numbers, SEC CIK — so every later lookup is about the right entity. The same identity is then used to tier sanctions and watch-list hits.