Searched for company in certain difficulties initially (7)
I believe the answer is:
scoured
'searched' is the definition.
(scouring is a kind of searching)
'company in certain difficulties initially' is the wordplay.
'company' becomes 'co' (abbreviation).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'certain' becomes 'sure' (synonyms).
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'difficulties' is 'd'.
'co' inserted inside 'sure' is 'scoure'.
'scoure'+'d'='SCOURED'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for scoured that I've seen before include "Scrubbed; searched" , "Washed" , "combed" .)