Yes, if the US company qualifies on its own
Yes. A US business owned by a parent in Germany, Japan, Canada or anywhere else can be referred, because SourceX looks at the US operating company, not at who sits on its share register. What matters is that the US entity employs its own workforce, keeps its own records and can grant a license to them.
Illustrative: a distributor incorporated in Delaware, with warehouses in Ohio and Texas, was bought by a European industrial group a decade ago. Its sales team still runs its own CRM, its service desk logs its own tickets and its finance team closes its own books. Those records were created by the US company's people, and they are what a license would cover.
Foreign ownership changes who needs to be consulted, not whether the company can qualify. Group approvals, intercompany agreements and shared IT are for the company to work through with SourceX. Your part ends with a well-aimed introduction.
What SourceX checks in a foreign-owned US company
The baseline is the same as for any US business. The right-hand column shows where a parent group adds a question.
| Check | The baseline | What the parent relationship adds |
|---|---|---|
| Entity | A US company with its own operations | Is it an operating business, or a holding or sales shell with no staff of its own? |
| Size | 50+ full-time employees at peak, contractors excluded | Count the US company's own full-time staff; group employees who support it from abroad are a qualification question, not an assumption |
| History | Several years of documented operations | An acquisition does not erase history if pre-deal records survived integration |
| Records | Years of material across many systems: email, chat, CRM, finance, support, engineering, operations | Some of those systems may be group services rather than the US company's own |
| Rights | The company created the records and its contracts allow licensing | Intercompany agreements and group IT policies may limit what it can license |
| Sponsor | Owner, CEO, CFO or another authorized representative | The US president may need group sign-off before anything is signed |
The four-check screen: entity, size, systems, sponsor
Before you spend anyone's time, answer four questions from what you already know. You need no documents and no data to do it.
- US entity: is there a US company with its own payroll, customers and premises, rather than a liaison office with a handful of people?
- Size: did that US business reach 50+ full-time employees at peak, counting only its own full-time staff and leaving contractors out?
- Systems: does it run its own CRM, ticketing, finance, collaboration or engineering tools, with several years of history it could export?
- Sponsor: can you reach the US president, CEO or CFO, or a group executive with authority over the US business?
Four yeses: run the company through the company fit checker, a preliminary, non-binding screen that needs no contact details. A no on entity or size usually ends the conversation. A no on systems or sponsor may only mean you need a different way in, for example through the parent's finance function.
Who decides: the US company or the parent?
The company decides, and inside a group that often means two levels: the US leadership that knows the records, and a group function that approves contracts or data matters. How authority is split varies widely from group to group.
Patterns you are likely to meet:
- Autonomous subsidiary. The US CEO runs the business within a delegated authority limit and keeps headquarters informed. An introduction to the US CEO is the natural route.
- Centralized group. Legal, IT and data protection sit at headquarters. The US team may welcome the conversation but cannot say yes alone.
- Recently acquired company. The founders still run it under an integration plan while group policies roll out. Raise the topic before the old systems are migrated.
When your relationship is with the parent, a short note to the group CFO asking whether the US leadership is open to a conversation is usually the cleanest first move. Any approval the group requires is for the company to obtain. You do not negotiate it.
Situations that need a closer look
Some foreign-owned companies raise questions that qualification will test early:
- The US business runs on the parent's systems. Group-hosted email, ERP or document management does not settle who owns the records; see who owns data in a shared group system.
- Engineering happens offshore. Code and tickets written by a group development center or an outside agency depend on IP assignment terms; the guide on who owns code written by offshore contractors explains what to flag.
- The parent is reviewing its US presence. If a sale or closure is on the table, licensing can come before or alongside it; compare the options in sell, wind down or license records.
- The group has licensed data before. Records already licensed for AI training are a red flag, so ask before going further.
How to make the introduction from outside the US
Partners can be based in any supported country; only the company has to be in the US. The sequence is the same as for any referral:
- Register as a partner and copy your referral link.
- Send the link to the US sponsor, which takes them to sourcex.si/apply with your referral code attached, or submit the company yourself through the referral form.
- SourceX qualifies the US company on size, history, breadth of records and rights. Any group approvals are for the US sponsor to obtain.
- The company builds a data inventory, agrees price and terms, and decides whether to sign.
- Buyers review, the deal closes and the company is paid; your reward follows once SourceX has received its fee.
You supply basic fit information only: the company name, the sponsor and what you know about size and history. You never export, upload or describe confidential records, whichever side of the group you know.
How the reward works on a group introduction
Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. The reward becomes payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee; an introduction, a meeting or a signed agreement alone does not trigger it, and no reward is guaranteed.
Credit goes to the first valid referrer whose introduction leads to a verified company application within the attribution window, so introduce early and through your own link. The reward is a share of SourceX's fee and never reduces what the US company receives, which is worth saying plainly to a group CFO. The referral earnings calculator shows how the formula works, and the program terms set the remaining details. If one group owns several US companies, ask how each would be treated before you introduce them.
When to pass
Skip the introduction when the US presence is a small sales or liaison office, when the US business never reached 50+ full-time employees at peak, when the records really belong to the parent or to customers who have not agreed, or when nobody in the US or at headquarters can authorize a license or run an export.
Next step
Run your candidate through the four checks above. If it passes, register as a partner and send your referral link to the US sponsor, or write to the group CFO first if that is where your relationship sits.