Paid on trust, settled by hand
A buyer pays a seller directly, and any multi-party split gets worked out afterward over email or a spreadsheet.
MARKETPLACES · ESCROW AND SETTLEMENT
Held until earned, then split and paid automatically
Escrow holds a payment in a neutral place until an agreed condition is met. Settlement is what happens next: calculating each party's share and paying it out, split correctly when more than one party is entitled to a piece of it.
HOW MONEY MOVES
Payment in, held, then split on release
Three points, not two. The middle step is where escrow protects both sides.
THE RANGE OF PRACTICE
What manual reconciliation looks like, and what automated settlement looks like
Described by behaviour, not by a score.
Escrow held, split calculated manually
Funds are held until a condition is met, but dividing the payout between multiple parties still happens by hand.
Held, then split and paid out automatically
Escrow releases into a calculated settlement the moment a condition is met, with each party paid their tracked share.
WHERE WE SIT
Built in, not bolted onto a single-seller checkout
Part of every marketplace build, priced per project.
Escrow and settlement are core infrastructure on every marketplace we build, not an afterthought added once multi-seller payouts become a problem. Trust Load, a US logistics marketplace we co-founded, runs on this exact model, currently in closed operational testing with limited participants.
STRAIGHT ANSWERS
Questions about escrow and settlement
The ones that come up before anyone signs anything.
Holding a payment in a neutral place until an agreed condition is met, delivery confirmed, a service completed, rather than releasing it to the seller the instant a buyer pays. It protects both sides: the buyer is not paying into a void, and the seller is not delivering on a promise with nothing to show for it yet.
Settlement is what happens after the condition is met: calculating each party's share of a payment and actually paying it out. Escrow holds the money. Settlement moves it to where it is owed, split correctly when more than one party is entitled to a piece of it.
Each party's share is calculated against that specific transaction and tracked to its own payout, rather than reconciled by hand afterward. A shipper, a carrier and a broker on the same load each see their own settled amount, not a lump sum someone has to divide up manually.
Yes. Trust Load, a US logistics marketplace we co-founded, runs on this exact escrow and settlement model, currently in closed operational testing with limited participants.
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