Quick answer: is there a "Maroof Yakeen API"? Not as one service. Yakeen is Elm's service for verifying an individual's identity data against official records, which is the KYC side of onboarding. Maroof was the Ministry of Commerce's trust registry for online stores, and since March 2023 new e-store registration has moved to the Business Platform (business.sa). For checking a business programmatically, the usual route is the Wathq commercial registration API, which covers the KYB side.

• Verify a person (KYC): Yakeen, through an approved agreement with Elm and with the person's consent
• Verify a company (KYB): Wathq commercial registration data, looked up by CR number
• Verify an online store: the Business Platform certificate, stored and checked as part of merchant onboarding

Building onboarding for a Saudi marketplace, fintech or B2B platform? Get an integration access review from Logiolegion →

Most teams searching for "Maroof Yakeen API integration" are building the same thing: an onboarding flow that has to prove who a customer is and whether a merchant or supplier is a real, registered Saudi business. The confusion is understandable, because the two checks are usually bought together but come from different sources. This guide separates them, explains what access each one needs, and shows how to design one onboarding flow around both.

Logiolegion, a GCC-specialist custom software development company with a Dubai delivery presence, builds Saudi onboarding and verification flows for marketplaces, fintech apps, real estate platforms and B2B procurement systems.

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Yakeen, Maroof, Wathq, Nafath and Absher: which one does what

These names come up together in Saudi projects, but each one answers a different question. Getting the split right before development is what keeps an onboarding project from being rebuilt later.

Service	Question it answers	Who you verify	Typical use in an app
Yakeen (Elm)	Does this identity data match official records?	Individuals	KYC at sign-up, loan or rental applications, driver onboarding
Wathq	Is this commercial registration real and active, and who owns it?	Companies	Merchant, supplier and B2B customer onboarding (KYB)
Maroof / Business Platform	Is this online store registered and authenticated?	E-stores	Marketplace seller onboarding, trust badges
Nafath	Is the person logging in really the ID holder?	Individuals	Strong login and transaction approval
Absher / Absher Business	Government services for individuals and establishments	Individuals, employers	Residency and workforce workflows

This page covers the first three. For login and approval flows with Nafath, and for Absher Business and Muqeem workflows, see our Absher integration guide for Saudi apps.

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What Yakeen verifies, and how access works

Yakeen is an identity verification service run by Elm that lets an approved organisation check a person's identity and personal data against official records. The Saudi Central Bank rulebook describes it as an electronic option for banks to verify customer identity without a branch visit, with the customer's prior approval and no extra fee to the customer (SAMA rulebook: Yakeen for ID verification).

Outside banking, Yakeen is used by lenders, rental and real estate platforms, telecom and other regulated onboarding journeys. Access is commercial and scoped: an organisation agrees which data scopes it may query with Elm, and only those fields come back.

What you need before writing code

• A signed service agreement with Elm, or access through an approved provider
• Approved data scopes that match your purpose, not "everything available"
• A consent step in your flow that the user completes before the lookup
• Test credentials and documentation for the subscribed service
• A PDPL record of why each field is processed and how long it is kept

What this means in plain terms

Yakeen is not a free public lookup you can call from a sign-up form. It is a paid, permissioned check, so the business case and the agreement come first, and the developer builds the flow around the scopes you were actually granted.

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What happened to Maroof

Maroof was the Ministry of Commerce platform that let online stores register and display a trust badge. On 29 March 2023 the Ministry asked e-store owners to register through the Business Platform run by the Saudi Business Center instead, and described it as the one place for verifying and registering online stores in the Kingdom (Ministry of Commerce announcement).

Older storefronts may still show a Maroof badge, but new registrations go through business.sa. Registration requires a commercial registration or valid freelance or professional certificate, plus a business bank account.

Is there a Maroof API?

We have not found a published public developer API for Maroof or for Business Platform store authentication. Confirm the current position with the Saudi Business Center before you scope, because this can change.

In practice, marketplaces handle store verification by asking sellers to upload their Business Platform certificate, then checking the underlying commercial registration through Wathq. The certificate becomes a document in the seller file with an expiry date and a review status.

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Wathq: the practical route to business verification

Wathq is the Ministry of Commerce-linked platform that gives access to commercial registration data through APIs. When it launched, the Ministry described it as giving private sector organisations C.R. data such as trade name, status and date, activities, address and capital, looked up by C.R. number (Ministry of Commerce on Wathq).

Today the developer portal at developer.wathq.sa offers commercial registration lookups, including basic and full CR details, owners and related registrations, alongside other data services. Each product has its own subscription and terms, so check what your plan includes.

What a KYB check usually confirms

• The CR exists and its status is active, not suspended or expired
• The legal name matches what the merchant typed in
• The registered activities fit what they will sell or supply on your platform
• The owner or manager matches the person completing onboarding
• The registration's city and address match the seller profile

That combination catches most bad sign-ups: expired CRs, borrowed CR numbers, and businesses selling outside their licensed activity.

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One onboarding flow, three checks

Most Saudi platforms need individual and business checks in the same journey, for example a seller who is both a person and a registered store. The design below is illustrative, not an official Elm or Wathq specification.

Step	Internal route (illustrative)	What happens
1. Consent	POST /onboarding/{id}/consent	User accepts the identity and business data check, and the consent text and version are logged
2. Person check	POST /verify/identity	Backend calls the approved Yakeen service and stores the result and reference only
3. Business check	POST /verify/cr/{crNumber}	Backend queries Wathq and compares legal name, status, activities and owner
4. Store certificate	POST /onboarding/{id}/documents	Seller uploads the Business Platform certificate for review
5. Decision	GET /onboarding/{id}/status	Auto-approve on a full match, route partial matches to manual review

These are your application's own routes. They do not imply that Elm, Wathq or the Business Platform expose matching endpoints.

Controls that matter in production

• All Yakeen and Wathq calls run server-side, and credentials never reach a browser or mobile app
• Store the verification result, reference and timestamp, not full copies of government records
• Re-check CR status on a schedule, because a CR that was active at onboarding can lapse
• Treat a timeout as "pending", never as "verified"
• Log who approved every manual override

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PDPL and data handling

Identity numbers, dates of birth and ownership details are personal data under Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law. You need a defined purpose for each field, an appropriate lawful basis, clear notice to the user, and retention limits (SDAIA PDPL resources).

The simplest safe design keeps the verification outcome and reference, not the raw response, and restricts who can view verification details. Data minimisation also limits what leaks if an admin account is ever compromised.

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Who needs this most

Marketplaces and e-commerce platforms need store and CR checks for every seller, and usually Yakeen for the individual behind the account. If you run on Salla, our Salla API integration guide covers the store side.

Fintech, BNPL and lending apps need Yakeen-level identity checks and, for business accounts, Wathq checks on the company and its owners.

Real estate and rental platforms verify tenants, landlords and brokerages before contracts. Contract registration itself is a separate integration, covered in our Ejar API integration guide.

B2B procurement and HR platforms verify suppliers by CR before payment. Workforce data such as Qiwa contracts is a separate integration, covered in our Qiwa API integration guide.

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Timeline and cost

The build itself is usually the smaller part of the timeline. Agreements, scopes and test credentials from Elm and Wathq often take longer than the code, so start those first.

Logiolegion scopes verification projects after a short access review: which checks you need, which agreements you already hold, and how many systems the result must reach. You then get a fixed-scope quote in SAR, with third-party subscription fees listed separately from development.

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Need customer and merchant verification that holds up?

Tell us what you verify today, which agreements you already have, and where the result needs to go. Logiolegion will map the access you need and send a fixed-scope proposal within 5 business days.

Book a verification integration review →

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Yakeen API? Yakeen is an identity verification service run by Elm that lets approved organisations check a person's identity data against official records. Access is commercial and limited to agreed data scopes, and the person's consent is collected before the lookup. Banks use it as an electronic alternative to in-branch identity checks.

2. Is Maroof still active in Saudi Arabia? Since 29 March 2023, the Ministry of Commerce has directed e-store owners to register through the Business Platform at business.sa instead of Maroof. Some older storefronts still show a Maroof badge, but new registrations and renewals go through the Business Platform.

3. Does Maroof or the Business Platform have a public API? We have not found a published public developer API for Maroof or Business Platform store authentication. Marketplaces usually collect the seller's Business Platform certificate as a document and verify the underlying commercial registration through Wathq. Confirm the current position with the Saudi Business Center before scoping.

4. What is the difference between Yakeen and Nafath? Yakeen checks that identity data matches official records, which suits sign-up and KYC. Nafath confirms that the person logging in or approving an action is the real ID holder, which suits login and transaction approval. Many apps use both at different steps; our Absher and Nafath guide covers the Nafath side.

5. I run a marketplace in Riyadh and need to verify sellers. Can Logiolegion build that? Yes. Logiolegion builds seller onboarding that checks the commercial registration through Wathq, compares legal name, status, activities and owner automatically, and collects the Business Platform certificate for review. Partial matches go to a manual review queue with every approval logged. The same flow can add a Yakeen check on the individual behind the seller account.

6. Can Logiolegion integrate Yakeen into our fintech app's KYC flow? Yes, once you hold an agreement with Elm or access through an approved provider. Logiolegion builds the consent step, the server-side Yakeen call, result storage that keeps the reference rather than raw records, and clear pending, verified and failed states. Timeouts are treated as pending, never as verified.

7. We already have a Yakeen agreement. How fast can Logiolegion connect it? With credentials and documentation in hand, the integration is usually the shorter part of the project, because the work is the consent step, the server-side call, and status handling inside your existing onboarding. Logiolegion starts with a short access review of your scopes and test environment, then gives a fixed-scope quote in SAR.

8. How does Logiolegion keep verification data PDPL-compliant? Logiolegion stores the verification outcome, reference and timestamp instead of full government records, restricts verification details by role, and logs every view and manual override. Each processed field is mapped to a stated purpose and retention period, which gives your compliance team a clear record for PDPL reviews.

9. Can one onboarding flow verify both the person and their company? Yes. Logiolegion designs a single flow where the user consents once, the individual is checked through Yakeen, the company through Wathq, and the store certificate is collected, with one combined decision at the end. Each external service keeps its own credentials, scopes and failure states, so one outage does not block the whole record.

10. Who builds Yakeen and Wathq integrations for Saudi platforms? Logiolegion, a GCC-specialist custom software development company with a Dubai delivery presence, builds Yakeen, Wathq and Business Platform verification into Saudi marketplaces, fintech, real estate and B2B platforms. Projects start with an access review and a fixed-scope SAR quote. Contact Logiolegion to scope your onboarding flow.