Citi Plans to Acquire Kard to Deliver More Personalized Rewards

Citi’s U.S. Consumer Cards business plans to expand its customer engagement and commerce media capabilities by acquiring Kard Financial, a commerce media and rewards platform for banks and FinTechs, Citi said in a Thursday (Aug. 13) press release.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and the companies will continue to operate as independent organizations until the transaction closes, according to the release.

The proposed transaction will combine Citi’s scale and payments expertise with Kard’s technology, talent and merchant relationships, enabling the bank to offer more personalized rewards and create new opportunities to connect customers, merchants and brands, the release said.

Abhinav Anand, Citi’s head of value cards, lending and commerce, said in the release that Citi aims to help customers get more value from their everyday spending and that Kard’s capabilities complement the bank’s vision.

“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,” Anand said.

PYMNTS reported in May that during the bank’s Investor Day, Citi executives highlighted recently expanded partnerships and said the goal is to bring more spending into the bank’s travel, dining and rewards ecosystem.

Pam Habner, head of U.S. consumer cards, described the strategy as a “virtuous cycle of growth” fueled by partnerships, loyalty and digital engagement.

Kard announced the proposed transaction and linked to Citi’s press release in a Thursday post on LinkedIn, saying it’s a big day for the team and what they get to build next.

“Citi’s scale, relationships and resources will allow us to bring new merchants and brands into the Kard ecosystem, invest more deeply in our products, and accelerate the features and functionality we can deliver across our platform,” Kard said in the post.

“For merchants, that means the opportunity to reach Citi’s scale of cardmembers, alongside our FinTech and neobanking partners’ unique demographic,” Kard said.

Kard secured $15 million in growth capital in October from alternative asset manager Trinity Capital, according to a press release issued by Trinity Capital at the time.

The release said that Kard had partnered with leading institutions across the United States and was reaching tens of millions of consumers and processing over $10 billion in transactions each month.

Kard CEO Ben Mackinnon said in the release: “With spend data aggregated across debit, credit, receipts and other sources, we can see how consumers actually spend—and, more importantly, what motivates them to switch. That insight lets us create measurable, incremental value for both financial institutions and merchants.”