Clay and Kernel both help teams work with account relationships, but they address different parts of the hierarchy problem.
Clay maps accounts to Clay IDs and identifies parent and subsidiary relationships inside search and enrichment. Clay Account Hierarchies covers the US operating and brand universe available in CPJ.
Kernel starts with entity identity. It resolves each account to the company it represents, keeps distinct legal and operating entities separate, and links them into a corporate tree. Kernel returns immediate parent, top parent, top operating parent, entity category, confidence, and written reasoning.
Ops and data teams use Kernel to resolve account identities, map corporate hierarchies, and enrich accounts with accurate firmographic data.
Customers can use the Kernel API through the data marketplace or buy a Kernel subscription. A subscription provides access to Kernel data and a platform for deploying Kernel in CRMs and data warehouses with safeguards and audit logs.
| Corporate hierarchy capability | Kernel | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| Account identity | Resolves names, websites, email domains, and addresses to a persistent KERN ID, with confidence and written reasoning. | Maps each account to a stable Clay ID. |
| Hierarchy relationships | Links distinct entities into a corporate tree and returns immediate parent, top parent, and top operating parent. | Identifies parent and subsidiary relationships inside search and enrichment. |
| Legal and operating structures | Maps operating structures and legal-entity hierarchies, including holding companies, regional subsidiaries, business units, brands, and establishments. | Covers operating accounts and brands in the US universe available through CPJ. |
| Relationship meaning | Classifies how entities relate, assigns confidence, and provides written reasoning. | Maps accounts and relationships within its hierarchy universe but does not distinguish legal ownership from shared-brand operation when two accounts use the same domain. |
| Shared domains | Keeps distinct entities separate even when they share a domain, which avoids collapsing a parent, subsidiary, brand, or regional account into one record. | Maps accounts and relationships using the records available in its hierarchy universe. |
| Parent types | Distinguishes the direct parent, the top of the ownership tree, and the highest operating parent below any passive holding company. | Identifies parent and subsidiary relationships. |
| Geographic and entity coverage | Covers US and non-US markets, SMBs, public-sector entities, brands, establishments, and accounts that do not appear in CPJ. | Covers the US operating and brand universe inside CPJ. |
| Hierarchy changes in the CRM | Can recommend linking a child to a parent, reparenting an account, creating a missing parent, or removing an incorrect relationship. Kernel can apply approved changes in Salesforce with safeguards, risk controls, and audit logs. | Makes hierarchy data available for search, enrichment, and orchestration. |
A hierarchy is only accurate when each CRM record points to the right company. Kernel resolves incomplete or conflicting records using the company name, website, email domain, and address.
This matters when a website is missing, incorrect, or shared by several accounts. Kernel can still identify the company behind the record and assign a KERN ID. The hierarchy is then built from resolved entities rather than from the domain alone.
For example, Kernel can keep Cisco US and Cisco UK as distinct accounts even when they share the same domain. A parent, subsidiary, brand, business unit, and establishment can each retain its own KERN ID when they represent distinct account identities.
Clay identifies parent and subsidiary relationships for accounts in its hierarchy universe. Kernel also maps legal-entity structures and preserves the difference between legal ownership and operating identity.
If two accounts share a domain, Kernel can determine whether one legally owns the other or whether they operate under the same brand. It keeps the entities distinct and connects them through the appropriate relationship instead of treating them as one account.
Kernel supports different parent definitions because one parent field does not answer every business question:
Immediate parent: The entity directly above the account. Use it to write or repair parent-child links in the CRM.
Top parent: The ultimate entity at the top of the corporate tree. Use it for account-family reporting, global routing, group rollups, and duplicate review.
Top operating parent: The highest operating company in the tree, excluding holding or investment entities. Use it when sales ownership and routing should anchor to an operating business instead of a passive holding company.
For YouTube, the immediate parent and top operating parent are Google LLC, while the top parent is Alphabet Inc. This preserves the legal ownership tree while giving go-to-market teams an operating parent they can use.
Kernel returns confidence and written reasoning with entity resolution and hierarchy classifications. The output can show why a record maps to a specific entity, how that entity is categorized, and how it relates to its parent.
This gives operations teams information they can review before changing CRM records. It also helps distinguish a true subsidiary from a duplicate, a regional account, a business unit, or a brand.
Kernel provides firmographic data for specific entities and for the rolled-up corporate group. This lets teams separate Oracle Spain from Oracle UK while also viewing the hierarchy as a whole.
Account-level and consolidated values can include headcount, revenue, industry, and location. Kernel also distinguishes an entity's registered address from its operating address.
Clay Account Hierarchies covers the US operating and brand universe inside CPJ. Kernel also covers non-US markets, SMBs, public-sector organizations, establishments, and accounts that do not appear in CPJ.
That additional coverage is intended for global territory planning, complex strategic accounts, legal-entity family trees, and CRM environments where hierarchy work extends beyond North American operating accounts.
Kernel is designed for enterprise hierarchy work that requires:
Entity resolution when names, websites, domains, or addresses are incomplete or conflicting.
Legal-entity hierarchies and operating-company trees.
Immediate, top, and top operating parent identification.
Confidence and written reasoning for hierarchy decisions.
Coverage beyond the US and beyond CPJ.
Distinct records for regional subsidiaries, brands, business units, and establishments.
Direct CRM changes such as associating, reparenting, merging, or deleting accounts under safeguards and audit logs.
Clay and Kernel can be used in sequence rather than treated as substitutes.
Kernel resolves accounts to KERN IDs.
Teams review Kernel cleanup recommendations under configured safeguards.
Kernel builds the corporate hierarchy and identifies the appropriate parent for each account.
Kernel adds account-level and consolidated firmographic data.
Clay enriches the resolved account structure.
Clay uses the parent structure to build audiences, territories, routing, and suppression logic, with subsidiaries retained as members of the hierarchy.
This order gives Clay a resolved account foundation and gives teams access to Clay's enrichment and orchestration after the corporate structure is defined.
Your CRM does not always reflect the way companies are structured. Companies own subsidiaries, operate through different brands, and share domains across distinct legal or regional accounts.
Clay gives accounts stable IDs and maps parent and subsidiary relationships inside search and enrichment. It is a direct way to get started with account hierarchies in the US operating and brand universe available through CPJ.
Kernel is for enterprise teams with more complex hierarchy requirements. It resolves difficult account records, maps legal and operating structures, identifies immediate, top, and top operating parents, and explains each relationship with confidence and reasoning. Kernel can also apply approved hierarchy changes in Salesforce with safeguards and audit logs.
Clay maps accounts to Clay IDs and identifies parent and subsidiary relationships inside search and enrichment. Kernel resolves each account to a specific entity first, then maps legal and operating relationships across a corporate tree. Kernel also returns multiple parent types, entity categories, confidence, and written reasoning.
Yes. Kernel does not require every entity to have a unique domain. A parent, subsidiary, regional account, brand, or business unit can receive its own KERN ID when it represents a distinct account identity. This prevents domain collapse.
The top operating parent is the highest operating company in a corporate tree, excluding holding or investment entities. It gives go-to-market teams a parent for routing and reporting without removing the legal holding company from the hierarchy.
Yes. Kernel maps legal entities as well as operating companies, regional subsidiaries, business units, brands, and establishments. It keeps these entities distinct and links them through the corporate hierarchy.
Yes. Kernel can resolve account identities and establish the corporate hierarchy first. Clay can then enrich and orchestrate workflows on that resolved structure.
Kernel generates recommendations before changes are made. Teams can review suggestions to link a child to a parent, reparent an account, create a missing parent, or remove an incorrect relationship. Approved actions can be executed in Salesforce under configured safeguards, risk controls, and audit logs.
