Stewart Information Services Corp. announced it will broaden its digital offerings with its acquisition of NotaryCam, a top online notarization provider and mortgage eClosings solutions provider.
“Stewart and NotaryCam have been partners for years in the digital and eClosing space, leading innovation and change for real estate closings across the country,” Stewart CEO Fred Eppinger said. “Together, we will be able to offer customers a suite of new and enhanced customer-centric tools and solutions that will further enhance our secure notarization and eClosing processes. Coupled with our recent CertifID partnership, we are keenly focused on enhancing our customer service capabilities with exciting developments to come.”
In November, Stewart announced its new partnership with money transfer protection company CertifID in order to help combat wire fraud.
Stewart Title has seen significant growth this year, including the acquisition of a significant number of Western U.S. operations from ET Investments back in September. These additions strengthened the company’s presence in Arizona, Colorado and Nevada.
Stewart announced the purchase price was $105 million, and it expected the deal to be immediately accretive to the company’s August equity raise of more than $100 million. Historically, the title offices associated with this transaction have generated in excess of $20 million in pre-tax income.
Stewart Title hits growth spurt with recent addition of 600 employees
HousingWire spoke to Stewart Title CEO Fred Eppinger about the company’s new focus on growth, recent strategic moves and how it’s reframing the way it does business.
Presented by: Stewart Title
Stewart also expanded its presence in Alaska in September with the acquisition of Yukon Title.
Over just the past few months, Stewart Title saw the addition of 600 employees through acquisitions and internal hiring.
“We recently acquired six companies, adding 57 office locations and over 500 talented people, and it repositioned us in four markets,” Eppinger told HousingWIre. “We’re going to be able to have the depth and capability in those markets to be the best every day. Apart from that, we’ve brought in an additional 100 people to meet our strategic needs.”
Looking to expand not just its physical presence but also its tech offerings, the 2020 HW Tech100 Real Estate winner says it will strive to enable organizations with remote online notarization capabilities across industries and geographies with its acquisition of NotaryCam.
“NotaryCam has seen significant growth and adoption over the years, specifically with forward-thinking industry partners like Stewart Title, and today we take the next step in expanding our customer-centric culture to service our individual and enterprise-level customers, across all industries along with the real estate industry, by joining Fred and the Stewart team,” NotaryCam Founder Rick Triola said.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
“For NotaryCam, business will continue as normal and they will continue to support their current customers,” a Stewart spokesperson told HousingWire. “Rick will continue to lead the team and the brand will stay separate for now.”
