Citi Expands Customer Engagement and Commerce Media Capabilities With Addition of Kard

Citi’s U.S. Consumer Cards business announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Kard Financial, Inc. (Kard), a company that operates a commerce media and rewards platform that helps banks and fintechs deepen customer engagement through personalized offers.

With billions of transactions and a network of leading fintechs, banks and neobanks, Kard provides an innovative commerce media platform that connects financial institutions and merchants through verified transaction data and merchant-funded rewards. Its embedded, machine learning-powered personalization and matching capabilities simplify rewards for issuers, deliver meaningful value to customers and help brands reach high-intent consumers with measurable outcomes.

By combining Citi’s scale and payments expertise with Kard’s technology, talent and merchant relationships, the proposed acquisition will strengthen Citi’s commerce ecosystem, enabling more personalized rewards and offers while creating new opportunities to connect customers, merchants and brands.

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“We’re focused on helping customers get more value from their everyday spending,” said Abhinav Anand, Citi’s Head of Value Cards, Lending and Commerce. “Kard has built advanced capabilities that complement our vision for the future of commerce and loyalty. With this acquisition, we believe we can work with Kard to accelerate innovation and deliver more personalized experiences for customers while creating new opportunities for brands and merchants to reach, engage and reward consumers in more meaningful ways.”

“Joining forces with Citi marks an exciting new chapter for Kard, our team and our customers,” said Ben Mackinnon, Kard’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “I started Kard with the goal of building more rewarding experiences for consumers. Now being able to do that for Citi’s 70 million cardmembers¹, on top of the millions we support today, accelerates that original vision towards building the future of commerce.”

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed and are not material to Citi’s financial results. The transaction is subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Until the transaction closes, Citi and Kard will continue to operate as independent organizations. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, A Stifel Company, acted as exclusive financial advisor to Kard in connection with the transaction. Sullivan & Cromwell LLP acted as counsel to Citi and Latham & Watkins LLP acted as counsel to Kard.