The consolidation wave is extending beyond mortgage lenders and servicers, with fraud prevention and escrow management companies joining forces to create a safer closing process.

Title fraud prevention firm CertifID acquired Closinglock, bringing together complementary capabilities across identity verification, fraud prevention, secure payments and real estate closing workflows to better protect people and money throughout a real estate transaction, the companies announced in a press release Thursday.

This was CertifID's second acquisition in the past few months, first buying CloseSimple, a closing communications and automation platform used by hundreds of title companies, in June. The company aimed to combine identification and fraud detection, payments and final closing under one roof with the purchase, and now adds to it.

"Title companies are being asked to protect more, move faster and deliver a better experience at a time when the risks have never been greater," said Tyler Adams, CEO of CertifID, in the release. "The challenges facing the real estate industry are real, persistent and bigger than any one company or product can solve alone."

CertifID's acquisition comes as title companies face increasingly sophisticated fraud threats, growing pressure and higher expectations from buyers, sellers and real estate agents. Real estate fraud losses grew more than twice as fast as overall reported cybercrime losses last year, FBI IC3 data showed. Real estate wire fraud was also a top target for Business Email Compromise scams, which topped $3 billion in losses in 2025, according to the release.

The combined organization will have approximately 220 employees and serve more than 3,000 title companies and 35,000 title professionals across the United States. Together, the companies have moved more than $7 billion in real estate payments and expect to protect 2.5 million real estate transactions this year.

CertifID will continue investing in an open ecosystem across title production systems, title underwriters and other third-party platforms, the company said.

"With continued headwinds in the real estate market, our responsibility is to deliver more protection and value for our customers without asking them to change platforms or restructure workflows," Adams said.