CertifID, an Austin, Texas company that sells fraud prevention tools to the title and escrow industry, said on October 1, 2026 that it had acquired Closinglock, another Austin startup that runs a secure payments and escrow platform for real estate closings. Financial terms were not disclosed.
It is CertifID's second purchase in four months. In June it bought CloseSimple, a closing communication and automation platform used by title companies.
Tyler Adams, CertifID's co-founder and chief executive, will run the combined business. Andy White, Closinglock's co-founder and chief executive, becomes chief strategy officer. Both men said customers would keep using the products and integrations they already have, and that the work of joining the two platforms would happen behind the scenes.
What Closinglock built
Closinglock was founded in 2017 and is based on Congress Avenue in Austin. It sells software that title companies, agents, attorneys and buyers use to move money and documents securely during a property sale, with identity checks, fraud screening and digital payments in one workflow. White told HousingWire the company launched the first digital cash-to-close payments platform for real estate.
Closinglock says it has protected more than $900 billion across more than two million transactions since it started. It raised $50 million from investors including Sageview Capital, Headline and Live Oak Ventures.
The startup's customers are mainly title and escrow companies, which hold buyers' funds and documents until a property changes hands, along with agents, attorneys and underwriters. Its pitch was that the people in a closing could be verified, and the payments screened, in one place before any money moved.
“Day one, the thing that we’re really proud of is to say is no change,”
Why CertifID is buying
CertifID made its name verifying wire instructions and insuring payments against fraud, and runs a recovery service for stolen funds. It says it protected 1.55 million real estate transactions in 2025 and recovered $145 million in stolen money. It has raised $80 million, with Arthur Ventures and Centana Growth Partners among its backers.
Adams said the two founders had watched the industry and the threats change side by side for a decade, and concluded they would do better together. He told HousingWire that combining the platforms lets the company share threat intelligence across both customer bases, so a fraudster spotted by one product can be flagged to the other's customers straight away.
White said CertifID brought expertise in fraud prevention, insurance and recovery, while Closinglock was strongest in moving money. He said the two leaders had stayed in touch for years, met for coffee earlier in 2026 and then for dinner a month later, which started the deal talks.
What happens to customers
The companies said nothing changes on day one. Customers will not be forced to choose one product or migrate from one to the other, and integration is the companies' job rather than the customers'.
The combined business has about 220 employees and serves more than 3,000 title companies and 35,000 title professionals in the United States. Together the two platforms have moved more than $7 billion in real estate payments and expect to protect about 2.5 million transactions in 2026.
Built In, which also covered the deal, reported that Adams framed the combination around the pressure on title companies, which are being asked to protect more money, move faster and give buyers a smoother experience at the same time. Neither company said whether any roles would be cut as the teams come together, and both said existing contracts stay in place.
Fraud and consolidation in title tech
Wire fraud during closings is one of the most costly scams in US real estate, because large sums move quickly between buyers, title companies and lenders. Adams said fraud is still in the early innings and that AI is becoming a tool for criminals, which he argued demands scale from the companies defending against it.
Asked whether consolidation would reduce choice, Adams said CertifID would keep an open ecosystem and continue to support overlapping product lines for the foreseeable future. The deal leaves CertifID as one of the larger independent security vendors serving the title industry, with two acquisitions completed in 2026.
