Freelancer.com, the freelance jobs and crowdsourcing marketplace, has announced today that it has agreed to purchase Escrow.com from a private investor for $7.5m.
The acquisition is being funded by A$10m (about $7.8m) placement of shares to institutional investors.
Escrow.com is a company that provides secure payment and online transaction services by holding payment as a trusted third party until successful completion of the transaction. Freelancer.com will retain the current Escrow.com staff, who will continue to work at the company’s Californian headquarters.
“We are excited to be joining the Freelancer.com group. Freelancer’s expertise in marketplaces, combined with our expertise in secure online payments are an excellent strategic fit,” said Escrow.com president & managing director Brandon Abbey.
Freelance.com already has experience with escrow providers. The firm owns Milestone Payments, a system intended to protect payments from employers. It provides a safer way of carrying out payment transactions by allowing Freelance to hold on to payment from employer until completion of services.
Escrow claims to have been responsible for $2.2 billion of secure transactions and$265m gross payment volume for the 2014 fiscal year.
To fund the acquisition, Freelancer issued 10 million ordinary shares at A$1.00 with the settlement of the placement being scheduled on 30 April, 2015.
“We are pleased to acquire Escrow.com, the world’s largest online escrow company. This highly complementary acquisition will enhance the ability of our 15 million users to transact securely. Finally, it is a strong cornerstone for entering the payments space,” stated Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie.
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