Refunds and Deposits
There are exactly four things money-related on Kairos: the offer deposit, the success fee, Kairos Verified, and buyer due diligence reports. Here is what happens to each of them in every case - including the cases where the answer is no refund, and why.
Effective 2026-07-18
The offer deposit: EUR 250, refundable, every branch listed
In plain terms: A hold on your card, not a charge. It comes back in full in every case except one: your deal closes, and then it counts toward the purchase.
Submitting an offer places an authorisation hold of EUR 250 on your card. It is a hold, not a charge - no money moves while it is held.
You withdraw your offer: released in full. The seller declines: released in full. The seller accepts someone else's offer: released in full. The listing is delisted or expires first: released in full. A deal starts and is cancelled before closing - by you, by the seller, or on the escrow side, for any reason: released in full.
The one branch where it is not released: the deal closes. Then the EUR 250 is captured and credited toward what you pay for the business. Kairos never keeps a deposit in any branch.
Buyers who have not completed funds verification can hold at most 3 offer deposits at once.
The success fee: owed only at close, taken inside escrow
In plain terms: No closed deal, no fee. Ever. The fee comes out of the escrow disbursement, so there is nothing to refund.
The success fee (5% self-serve with a EUR 500 minimum; 12%/9% full-service with a EUR 10,000 minimum) exists only when a deal closes. It is deducted by the escrow provider from the sale proceeds at disbursement - it is never prepaid, so there is never a success fee refund scenario. If your deal falls apart at any stage before the escrow releases, you owe no success fee.
The rate that applies is locked when the deal is created. A pricing change after that never touches your deal.
Kairos Verified: prepaid, credited if you sell, not refundable
In plain terms: You pay for human due diligence up front. Sell the store and it comes back as a fee credit. If the store does not sell, or does not earn the badge, the work was still done - no refund.
Kairos Verified (EUR 2,500 for listings up to EUR 500,000, EUR 5,000 up to EUR 2,000,000, quoted above that) is invoiced before the work starts. If your store sells on Kairos, the full amount is credited against your success fee - a seller who sells pays nothing extra net.
It is not refundable if the store does not sell, and not refundable if we complete the review and decline the badge. The product is the review itself, performed by a person, and it is complete once the report exists - whichever way it points. A badge we granted stays valid for 90 days before a re-check is required; the re-check does not cost extra within an active listing.
If Kairos fails to deliver the review at all, you get a full refund - that is a service failure, not an outcome.
Buyer due diligence reports: not refundable, and never credited
In plain terms: A report that talks you out of a bad purchase did its job. That is why there is no refund for a report you did not like.
A buyer-paid due diligence report (same price bands as Kairos Verified) is delivered whatever it finds. A walk-away recommendation is the product working, so the fee is not refundable based on the report's conclusions, and it is never credited against anything - Kairos is not a party to your deal.
It cannot be purchased on a listing that already carries the Kairos Verified badge, so the same work is never paid for twice. If Kairos fails to deliver the report, you get a full refund.
The escrow provider's own fee
In plain terms: Escrow.com charges for escrow. Full-service: we absorb it. Self-serve: buyer and seller split it.
The escrow provider charges its own fee for holding and disbursing the funds, shown before the deal is created. In the full-service lane Kairos absorbs it entirely. In the self-serve lane it is split equally between buyer and seller. Refunds of escrowed funds on a cancelled deal follow the escrow provider's own terms, which both parties accept directly with it.
Statutory rights
Nothing in this policy limits rights you have under mandatory law that cannot be waived by contract. Questions about any charge: privacy@kairosexchange.com.