For private market deals to close, both parties must trust the other to fulfill their contractual obligations. Yet, the mechanism for moving capital remains one of the most archaic parts of the deal journey. Bank transfers and informal holding arrangements leave counterparty risk unresolved, while traditional legal workflows slow everything down with manual coordination, email-based status updates, and no real-time view of where a deal actually stands.

Across the world today, deals are taking longer to close. The median M&A closing timeline is now 6.4 months, a 25% increase over the past two decades. Much of that delay sits in the capital movement layer, where each side requires time to coordinate wire instructions, chase proof-of-transfer screenshots, and wait for intermediaries to confirm that funds are where they should be.

Escrow is the mechanism built to solve this. A properly structured escrow holds transaction funds with a neutral, regulated party and releases them only when pre-agreed conditions are met. It removes counterparty risk from the equation and gives both sides of a deal a single source of truth for where capital sits at every stage.

As regional transactions grow in size and complexity, private market deals need a neutral, digital-first custody solution.

Zest Escrow: Regulated digital custody

Following our Financial Services Permission (FSP) from the ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), we have launched Zest Escrow. This is a regulated escrow service provided through a digital technology layer that acts as a neutral third party to safeguard transaction funds.

We have replaced manual follow-ups and proof-of-transfer screenshots with a secure, transparent system that ensures each step of the process is traceable and capital moves only when pre-agreed conditions are met.

Built for security, designed for speed

Zest Escrow gives every participant in a deal institutional-grade oversight over how transaction funds are held and released.

• Trusted and impartial: Funds are segregated and released on an authorized-instruction basis
• Digital control: Gain complete oversight with seamless online onboarding, real-time visibility, and a complete audit trail, all in one secure platform.
• Faster to market: Set up your escrow in hours, not weeks, and leverage the same infrastructure for multiple deals.
• Regionally ready: Purpose-built to serve you and your LPs across the GCC, MENA, and globally.

Where Zest Escrow fits

A few of the scenarios where Zest Escrow removes the most friction:

• SPVs & co-investments: LP capital aggregated from multiple investors held in regulated escrow until subscription thresholds are met, then released to the target in one coordinated wire.
• M&A, joint ventures, structured deals: Deferred consideration and earn-out tranches held in escrow and released against pre-agreed revenue, EBITDA, or completion milestones.
• Fund capital calls and distributions: LP commitments drawn down on a defined schedule and realized proceeds returned through a regulated escrow, with each tranche traceable and released only against authorized fund instructions.
• Real estate deposits and milestone releases: Buyer deposits or development tranches held in escrow and released against construction completion, regulatory approvals, or contractual milestones.
• Secondaries and GP-led continuation vehicles: Cash-out payments to exiting LPs and fresh commitments from secondary buyers settle through a single escrow, removing the multi-counterparty fragmentation of a typical close.

Capital meets clarity

Zest Escrow is the third pillar of our unified infrastructure. Combined with our Arranging and digital SPV creation capabilities, it gives investment leads and deal participants a single platform where capital, governance, and reporting sit in one place.

For deal leads, the value shows up in how deals actually get done. Manual reconciliations disappear and the gap between signing and closing is much faster. Audit trails exist by default instead of being assembled after the fact. Escrow has stopped being a back-office line item - it is now one of the levers that determines how cleanly and how quickly a deal closes.

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Closing a deal in the next 90 days? Talk to our escrow team about scoping the structure.