A Business Registration Number (BRN) is a unique identifier issued by a government agency or regulatory authority to a business entity at the time of its registration. This number serves as an official identifier for the business in the country of its registration and is used in official documents and transactions.
The BRN facilitates the tracking of businesses for taxation, regulation and legal purposes. It is often required for opening a bank account in the name of the business, filing tax returns, applying for business licenses and completing other administrative tasks. For fund managers, collecting and verifying business registration numbers from portfolio companies and service providers is a critical component of compliance and due diligence processes.
Different jurisdictions use different identifiers for company registration. For example, the United Kingdom issues a Company Registration Number (CRN), whilst Germany assigns a Handelsregisternummer through the commercial register.
Having a BRN provides transparency, allowing others to verify the legitimacy of a business. This number is typically publicly accessible through a business registry maintained by the government or relevant authority, providing a valuable tool for due diligence processes.
For fund managers operating across European jurisdictions, tracking business registration numbers across LP entities and counterparties quickly becomes operationally complex. This is especially true for funds with international investor bases and entity structures spanning multiple countries.
Fund administration platforms help structure this process by embedding entity data collection into investor onboarding workflows, ensuring required identifiers are captured and verified before commitments are activated.
More broadly, fund managers often cite fragmented administrative processes as a key operational bottleneck when scaling across entities and jurisdictions. As Alexander Langholz-Baikousis, CFO & Operating Partner at Cherry Ventures, puts it: “bunch has provided us with a solution that makes our entire migration as simple and seamless as possible. The team has elevated our administration and investor communication process.”
