2140 BCE (during the First Intermediate Period), according to the Turin King List where his name, Neferkare, is inscribed in the register 4.20.

This otherwise unattested ruler of Herakleopolis Magna has been controversially identified by various scholars with a king named Ka-nefer-re, who is mentioned in an obscure and isolated tomb inscription of Ankhtifi, the pro-Herakleopolite nomarch of Hieraconpolis and prince of El-Mo'alla, about 30 km (19 mi) south of Thebes.

[3] If Neferkare and Kaneferre were the same pharaoh, his authority is sometimes presumed from Ankhtifi's inscription to have extended at least over Elephantine, Edfu and Hieraconpolis, the capitals of the first three nomoi of Upper Egypt.

Uncertainty about the verb tense in the inscription has led to disagreement among various scholars as to whether this named pharaoh would have ruled in Ankhtifi's youth, or at the time of the events he describes, or indeed if it were not a king before Ankhtifi's time, who had ruled toward the end of the Old Kingdom from Memphis.

However, the details about his reign, including its length and achievements, remain elusive, primarily because this period's records are scarce and often fragmented.