Disrupting Escrow: Why High-Value Deals Still Depend on Slow Wires
On Disruption Interruption, Lopsii Olagoke explains why high-value B2B settlements still rely on slow wires, opaque escrow processes, and third-party custody that can expose funds to fraud and forgone yield.
TAMPA BAY, Fla., Aug. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. title insurance and escrow market was estimated at $35 billion in a Compass regulatory filing, including an estimated $19 billion escrow component. Yet when high-value settlements depend on manual coordination, third-party custody, and payment processes that can take days to complete, capital can remain tied up. On this episode of Disruption Interruption, host Karla Jo Helms (KJ) speaks with Lopsii Olagoke, CEO and Co-Founder of Nezz, about why the infrastructure behind those transactions has not kept pace with modern finance and whether they can be coordinated without requiring an intermediary to take custody of the funds. "Why does a wire take three days? Why does it take five days?" Olagoke asks. "Why is this the standard?"
Why High-Value Settlements Still Break
For Olagoke, the problem begins with a process that works just well enough for people to stop questioning it. Large transactions in commercial real estate, mergers and acquisitions, construction, asset purchases, and milestone-based contracts can require manual coordination among multiple parties, financial institutions, and advisers.
The delay can cost money. When funds move into a third-party escrow or settlement account, they may remain there while a deal waits on compliance checks, approvals, or closing conditions. "Things don't move fast, and people don't necessarily want them to move fast," Olagoke says. "There are checks and balances done for a reason. But when things don't move fast, it shouldn't cost you."
Fraud compounds the weakness. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported more than $3.04 billion in Business Email Compromise (BEC) losses in 2025 and $275.1 million in real estate-related cybercrime losses. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has also identified real estate transactions as BEC targets because high-value deals depend on communications among title, closing, and escrow participants. Olagoke says attackers exploit that structure by monitoring deals, identifying decision-makers, and spoofing calls or emails after a transaction appears ready to close. "Once you send out a wire, it's irrevocable," he says. When funds are lost, the organization may have to absorb the loss: "Somebody has to pay for it."
Control Settlements Without Holding the Funds
Nezz is designed to separate settlement coordination from custody of the money. Rather than sending funds to an outside escrow holder, the payer locks them in its own Nezz account for the beneficiary under the terms of the transaction, while approved participants can track and administer the deal through a shared process "They can do the whole process and not hold the funds," Olagoke says, while still maintaining visibility for all parties.
The system is built for escrow and milestone payments, where deals rarely move in a straight line from agreement to completion. Parties can invite legal counsel, insurers, finance teams, and other stakeholders into the settlement timeline, until both sides meet the agreed terms. If a 30-day closing stretches to three months, the money can remain locked under the agreed terms while the payer continues to receive the associated yield rather than losing that benefit during the delay.
Olagoke says Nezz has seen unexpected demand from middle-market and enterprise organizations, including a company selling high-value agricultural robotics equipment and a marketing agency, expanding the potential use cases beyond traditional real estate escrow. Those use cases have also broadened the conversation beyond payment speed toward the cost of capital that remains tied up while transactions are unresolved. "The problem is someone is paying for the inadequacy," he says. "If no one was paying for it, we could accept that. But someone is paying for it, and we want to change that."
Links
Disrupting the $35 Billion Escrow Industry: The Missing Infrastructure for Modern Finance, with Lopsii Olagoke
Disruption Interruption is the podcast where you will hear from today's biggest Industry Disruptors. Learn what motivated them to bring about innovation and how they overcame opposition to adoption.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oluwalopeyeio/
Company Website: https://nezzapp.com
About Disruption InterruptionTM
Disruption is happening on an unprecedented scale, impacting all manner of industries — MedTech, Finance, IT, eCommerce, shipping, logistics, and more — and COVID has moved their timelines up a full decade or more. But WHO are these disruptors and when did they say, "THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT!"? Time to Disrupt and Interrupt with host Karla Jo "KJ" Helms, veteran communications disruptor. KJ interviews bad asses who are disrupting their industries and altering economic networks that have become antiquated with an establishment resistant to progress. She delves into uncovering secrets from industry rebels and quiet revolutionaries that uncover common traits — and not-so-common — that are changing our economic markets… and lives. Visit the world's key pioneers that persist to success, despite arrows in their backs at www.disruption-interruption.com.
About Lopsii Olagoke
Lopsii Olagoke is the CEO and co-founder of Nezz, a fintech company building programmatic settlement infrastructure for escrow, milestone payments and high-value B2B transactions. His work focuses on helping organizations coordinate complex deals without surrendering control of funds to third-party custody. Before Nezz, Olagoke built compliance and billing technology in the home daycare management space, where he says the platform reached $90 million in billing and payouts within its first year of operation.
About Karla Jo Helms
Karla Jo Helms is the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR® Strategist for JOTO PR Disruptors™. Karla Jo learned firsthand how unforgiving business can be when millions of dollars are on the line — and how the control of public opinion often determines whether one company is happily chosen, or another is brutally rejected. Being an alumnus of crisis management, Karla Jo has worked with litigation attorneys, private investigators, and the media to help restore companies of goodwill into the good graces of public opinion — Karla Jo operates on the ethic of getting it right the first time, not relying on second chances and doing what it takes to excel. Helms speaks globally on public relations, how the PR industry itself has lost its way, and how, in the right hands, corporations can harness the power of Anti-PR to drive markets and impact market perception.
References
- Compass, Inc. (2021, March 29). Amendment no. 2 to Form S-1 registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933 [SEC filing]. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1563190/000119312521097387/d36119ds1a.htm
- Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2026). 2025 IC3 annual report. fbi.gov/file-repository/2025_ic3report.pdf
- Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. (2023, March 30). FinCEN analysis of business email compromise in the real estate sector reveals threat patterns and trends [Press release]. fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-analysis-business-email-compromise-real-estate-sector-reveals-threat
Media Inquiries:
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727-777-4629
SOURCE Disruption Interruption
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