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Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media. Last reviewed 29 July 2026.
On a small business sale the escrow amount is normally the entire purchase price, not a deposit. The buyer funds the full sum with the escrow agent before any asset moves, and it releases once the buyer confirms the handover. Smaller amounts do exist in a deal, but they sit elsewhere: earnest money at the letter-of-intent stage, and a holdback that stays behind after closing.
Escrow exists to remove one specific fear: that a seller hands over a store and never gets paid, or a buyer pays and never gets the store. A part-funded escrow only removes part of that fear. The seller is still exposed for the remainder on handover day, which is exactly the day they have the least leverage. Fund the whole price, or you have only protected part of the deal.
Earnest money comes first: a small sum, often 1 to 5 percent, that a buyer puts up at the letter-of-intent stage to show the exclusivity request is serious. A holdback comes last: a slice of the price that stays in escrow after closing until agreed conditions hold. Neither is a substitute for funding the full price at transfer: the earnest money sits before it, the holdback sits after it.
The full amount, before anything moves. Funds release only after the full amount is funded in escrow, the APA is signed, every critical asset is handed over, and the buyer confirms the transfer. Our fee is auto-deducted at that moment, before the seller is paid. The deal room enforces the same sequence it describes, so a seller cannot be talked into handing over the store admin first as a favour.
Kairos Due Diligence works on any deal - Flippa, a broker, a private sale. A person reads the store's raw numbers and writes you a report. If the deal is bad, the report says walk away. From EUR 1.5k, no account needed.
When the doors open, verified stores go to the waitlist first. You have done the reading part. The list is the part with a queue.