Methodology

Where the data comes from

The primary data source for Newest Business is the Securities and Exchange Commission's Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) system. Specifically, we monitor Form D filings. These are required notices filed by companies that sell securities in a "private placement" under Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933.

Form D filings are a highly reliable indicator of private funding activity because they are legally required when a company raises capital from accredited investors, whether the round is a seed-stage "friends and family" investment or a multi-billion dollar Series G.

What's included

Our directory includes any company that has filed a new or amended Form D within our tracking window. This includes private startups across all 50 US states and Washington D.C. We capture the offering amount, the date of the first sale, the city and state of the headquarters, and the named executive officers listed in the filing.

What's not included

Newest Business focuses strictly on private company capital raises. We do not include:

• Public Companies: Filings for publicly traded entities (10-K, 8-K, etc.) are excluded.
• Foreign Filings: Only companies with a primary place of business in the United States are indexed.
• Alternative Vehicles: Capital raises through traditional bank debt, ICOs, or crowdfunding platforms that do not require a Form D are not captured.

How often it updates

Our systems perform a daily fetch of new records from the SEC, typically concluding before 6:00 AM UTC. Please note that there is an inherent delay between the moment a company submits a filing and when the SEC publishes it to the public EDGAR feed. This lag, combined with our processing time, means data typically appears on our site 24 to 72 hours after the "filing date" recorded on the document.

Sector classification

Filings on EDGAR use a broad set of industry codes provided by the filers themselves. We map these codes to our 16 curated sector categories using a proprietary logic to ensure consistency and browsability.

In cases where a filer provides ambiguous industry information or selects "Other," we perform an automated review of the company's description (if provided) or fallback to our "Other" category. As many early-stage companies operate in stealth or have broad descriptions, sector classification is an automated best-effort process and may evolve as more data becomes available.