Freelancer.com eyes payment space with Escrow.com acquisition

Skills marketplace also raises US$10 million

Freelancer will acquire Escrow.com for US$7.5 million, the ASX-listed skills marketplace said today.

Escrow.com offers online escrow services. In FY14 it handled payments worth US$265 million and reported net revenue of US$5 million (US$1.2 million EBITDA), Freelancer said.

The California-based company will continue to be run as a standalone business.

Freelancer CEO Matt Barrie said Escrow.com was a "highly complementary" acquisition. Escrow.com "is a strong cornerstone for entering the payments space".

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval.

Freelancer also report today that it had raised $10 million from a placement of new ordinary shares, with some of the money funding the Escrow.com acquisition.

Escrow.com. is Freelancer's third acquisition for the year.

In March it acquired acquire Spanish online marketplace Projectlinkr.com and The ASX-listed business announced earlier this month that it had acquired the assets of defunct Israeli website DoNanza.

Last year the company acquired the Warrior Forum marketing community, Polish freelance marketplace Zlecenia.przez.net, content marketplace Fantero and startup conference SydStart.

Read more: Freelancer picks up DoNanza assets

Freelancer.com reported a 39 per cent increase in revenue for the 12 months ending 31 December.

At the end of last year it had 14.3 million registered users for its crowdsourcing marketplace.

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