Castly: A Talent Marketplace with Full Escrow, Contracts & Payouts — Web, iOS & Android
The Challenge
What Problem Were We Solving?
Booking talent is built on mistrust. Brands fear paying upfront for work that never arrives; models and creators fear delivering and never getting paid. That friction is why so much talent work still runs on informal DMs and chased invoices. Castly's bet was to remove the fear entirely — but "safe money" isn't a feature you bolt on later. It's an escrow system, and it had to be right from day one. The hard part wasn't the marketplace — it was the money. MamoPay handles moving money in the region, but it does not provide escrow logic: holding funds, tracking milestones, conditional release, payouts, disputes. All of that had to be built. So we engineered the entire escrow layer ourselves and integrated MamoPay underneath it — a custom trust engine on top of a regional payment rail, across two sides of a marketplace and multiple apps.
The Solution
How We Built It
We built the entire Castly product end to end — every surface on one shared backend. Talent iOS and Android apps let creators build profiles, get discovered, accept bookings, sign contracts, and receive instant payouts. The brand experience on mobile and business web lets brands launch campaigns, discover talent, and manage engagements. An admin panel handles users, bookings, disputes, and payouts across the platform. The core is the custom escrow and contracts engine: digital contracts, held funds, milestone tracking, conditional release, dispute resolution, and real-time visibility of escrow balances for both sides. MamoPay is wired beneath this layer to move money and deliver instant payouts once work is approved.
Key Features
What We Built
Custom Escrow Engine
Funds captured and held on booking, released only on milestone approval — built from scratch, not provided by the payment gateway.
Digital Contracts
Every engagement is secured by a digital contract signed before work begins, creating a clear paper trail for both sides.
Milestone Tracking
Structured deliverable milestones with conditional fund release — brands approve work, money moves automatically.
Instant Talent Payouts
Once work is approved, talent receives instant payouts via MamoPay — no chasing invoices, no waiting.
Dispute Resolution
Clean dispute flow with evidence collection and admin mediation — every edge case handled inside the platform.
Talent & Brand Apps
Native iOS and Android apps for talent plus a business web experience for brands — all on one shared backend.
Our Process
How We Delivered in 4 Months
- Two-sided marketplace flow design
- Escrow lifecycle mapping
- MamoPay integration scoping
- Multi-app backend architecture
- Talent app onboarding & profile
- Brand campaign flow
- Escrow & earnings dashboard
- Admin dispute interface
- React Native iOS & Android
- React.js & Next.js brand web
- Node.js & NestJS backend
- Custom escrow + contracts engine
- MamoPay payment integration
- Real-time escrow state & notifications
- End-to-end escrow flow testing
- App Store & Play Store submissions
- Security & payments audit
- Live brand onboarding
The Outcome
Results That Speak for Themselves
Castly launched on the App Store and Google Play in 4 months, live with real brands already onboard — including Quri, Galadari, and eZhire. The escrow engine runs every transaction: funds captured, milestones tracked, money released on approval, disputes handled cleanly, and every state visible to both sides in real time so no one is left guessing where their money is.
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