NYC Certified Business Directory Scraper

NYC Certified Business Directory Scraper

Scrape certified minority, women, and local businesses from the official NYC directory. Get firm name, owner, phone, email, certification type, ethnicity, NAICS code, and address for every match. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The NYC Department of Small Business Services publishes a searchable directory of M/WBE, EBE, and LBE certified firms, but the web interface makes you click into each profile to see contact details. This Actor reads the public directory directly, applies your filters for certification, ethnicity, sector, and borough, and returns every matching business in one flat dataset. No API key, no browser automation, no manual copy-paste.

Who uses it	What they scrape NYC Certified Business Directory for
Government contractors	Build a bid list of certified subcontractors for city and state RFPs.
Supplier diversity managers	Find minority and women-owned vendors in specific NAICS sectors.
Business development reps	Generate a prospecting list of certified firms in a target borough.
Market researchers	Map the density of certified businesses by ethnicity and industry across NYC.

What it does

This Actor collects certified business listings from the NYC Certified Business Directory and returns each one as a flat row with firm name, owner, phone, email, certification, ethnicity, NAICS, and address.

• 🏷️ Certification filter: MBE, WBE, EBE, LBE, or all types at once.
• 🌍 Ethnicity filter: Narrow results to Black American, Hispanic American, Asian-Pacific American, and more.
• 🏗️ NAICS sector filter: Target specific industries like Construction, Professional Services, or Manufacturing.
• 📍 City filter: Limit results to Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, or Staten Island.
• 🔍 Keyword search: Find businesses by partial name match.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with NYC Certified Business Directory data

📋 Build a subcontractor bid list.

A government contractor filters for MBE and WBE firms in Construction within Brooklyn and exports the list to CSV for an upcoming RFP.

📊 Analyze supplier diversity by borough.

A researcher scrapes all certified businesses, groups them by ethnicity and NAICS sector, and maps the distribution across the five boroughs.

📞 Generate a cold outreach list.

A BDR filters for Professional Services firms in Manhattan with a keyword like 'consulting' and gets owner names and phone numbers for direct outreach.

🏢 Audit a corporate supplier base.

A supplier diversity manager checks which of their current vendors appear in the NYC directory and identifies gaps by certification type.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Official NYC source	Data comes straight from the City's live certified business directory, not a third-party scrape.
Full contact details	Owner name, phone, and email are extracted from each profile page.
Flexible filters	Combine certification, ethnicity, sector, and borough to build precise lists.
Flat, export-ready schema	Every row has the same columns, ready for CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML export.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets NYC Certified Business Directory the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	NYC Certified Business Directory Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When NYC Certified Business Directory changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with certification type, ethnicity, NAICS sector, city, and a business name keyword, alone or together, and filters run as each listing is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.008 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.80
1,000 results	$8.00
10,000 results	$80.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the NYC Certified Business Directory Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to NYC Certified Business Directory through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/nyc-certified-business-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Your filter combination may be too narrow. Try removing one filter at a time, or set 'Certification Type' to 'All Types' and leave other fields blank to see the full feed.

The scraper stopped before reaching my max items.

The Actor stops when the directory has no more listings matching your filters. Try broadening your criteria or increasing the max items if you suspect more exist.

Some fields are empty in my dataset.

Not every business profile in the NYC directory includes a phone, email, or ethnicity. Empty cells mean the directory itself did not publish that field for that firm.

My NAICS sector filter is not working.

Enter the sector name exactly as it appears in the directory, like 'Construction' or 'Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services'. Partial matches work, but spelling matters.

The run is taking a long time.

The Actor respects the source website's speed. Large max-item counts with broad filters will take longer. Reduce max items or narrow your filters for faster runs.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What is the NYC Certified Business Directory?	It is the official public listing of firms certified by the NYC Department of Small Business Services as Minority/Women-owned (M/WBE), Emerging (EBE), or Locally Based (LBE) enterprises.
What data fields does the scraper return?	Each row includes firm name, owner name, phone, email, certification type, ethnicity, NAICS code and description, street address, city, state, and zip.
Can I filter by multiple criteria at once?	Yes. You can combine certification type, ethnicity, NAICS sector, city, and a business name keyword in a single run to narrow results.
How do I search for a specific business name?	Use the 'Business name or keyword' input field. It performs a partial match, so 'plumbing' will return any firm with that word in its name.
What NAICS sectors can I filter by?	You can enter any NAICS sector name like 'Construction', 'Professional Services', 'Manufacturing', or 'Retail Trade'. The filter matches the sector text in the directory.
Does this scraper require a login or API key?	No. It reads the public NYC directory website directly. You only need an Apify account to run the Actor.
How many businesses can I scrape in one run?	You set the maximum with the 'Maximum businesses' input, up to 1,000,000 per run. The Actor stops when it hits your limit or exhausts the directory.
What export formats are supported?	You can export your dataset to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify run console.
Is the data live or cached?	Every run hits the live NYC directory, so you always get the current list of certified businesses.
Can I schedule this scraper to run weekly?	Yes. Apify's scheduler lets you set a recurring run, so your dataset stays up to date without manual effort.

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Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by City of New York. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.