Infillion Announces Acquisition of Catalina
On Infillion, Catalina's deterministic purchase data will be able to power custom bidding algorithms that autonomously optimise media buying to drive sales specific to each retailer's customer base.
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Infillion, the composable advertising platform purpose-built for agentic media execution, has announced the acquisition of Catalina, a company in deterministic purchase intelligence.
Catalina is the deterministic purchase intelligence network – four decades, seventy retail banners, 130 million households, $600 billion in annual spending.
Founded in 1983, Catalina invented purchase-driven measurement and built a large purchase-based intelligence network, processing 11 billion annual shopping trips across seventy retail banners, providing the ground truth that powers closed-loop marketing across retail and digital channels.
For the past several years, this data hasn’t been available to the market at all. Infillion is bringing it back – exclusively through Infillion.
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“We’re thrilled to welcome the Catalina team to Infillion. The business they’ve built over four decades, combined with our composable platform, makes this more than an acquisition,” said Rob Emrich, Executive Chair of Infillion. “When you connect purchase truth directly into a composable media platform, brands can finally optimise every dollar against verified sales in real time.
“This extraordinary capability positions Infillion to lead as digital advertising scales to $1.3 trillion globally by 2030-driven by two converging forces: brands’ shift toward performance marketing tied to verified purchase outcomes, and retailers’ imperative to monetise commerce data through media networks that require enterprise-grade infrastructure expected to grow to more than $200B.”
Infillion will be leveraging Catalina’s US deterministic data in its platform, enabling two unparalleled value streams that walled gardens cannot deliver.
- Exclusive access to the largest deterministic data set-including more than 400 million shopper IDs
- Equipping retailers with the ability to activate retail media networks and digital commerce solutions with Catalina purchase-verified measurement and demand
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This Changes Everything
By connecting advertising exposure directly to verified purchases within a single unified platform, brands can target audiences based on actual purchase behaviour rather than inferred intent, measure incrementality at the SKU level rather than relying on self-reported retailer metrics, and optimise campaigns in near-real time based on actual sales outcomes.
This is a step change in media campaign development and accountability. On Infillion, Catalina’s deterministic purchase data will be able to power custom bidding algorithms that autonomously optimise media buying to drive sales specific to each retailer’s customer base.
The acquisition enables brands and retailers to:
- Access sophisticated vertical solutions: Leverage deeply tailored offerings for CPG brands needing closed-loop measurement tied to omnichannel sales, and for healthcare marketers requiring privacy-first targeting with compliance-ready analytics
- Measure across all channels: Achieve a unified view of campaign performance across walled gardens, programmatic channels, media networks, and all major CTV and TV platforms
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- Target with precision: Activate audiences based on verified purchase behaviour rather than inferred intent
- Optimise autonomously: Infillion’s platform integrates Catalina’s purchase data into intelligent systems that continuously optimise against verified sales outcomes
- Enrich identity: Combine purchase data with location intelligence, survey-based intent, and cross-device signals to create richer consumer profiles across CTV, online video, mobile, desktop, audio, and digital out-of-home
- Build retail media infrastructure: Support entire retail media network businesses out of the box, from closed-loop measurement across every channel to audience development based on loyalty and purchase data to custom bidding based on audience and conversion data
- Launch or scale retail media networks (RMNs) and commerce media networks (CMNs): Access turnkey Infillion media platform to build and operate custom retail media networks, enabling closed-loop measurement across every channel, audience development based on loyalty and purchase data, and custom bidding based on audience and conversion data
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Catalina’s executive leadership team will join Infillion, bringing domain expertise in purchase intelligence, retail partnerships, and closed-loop measurement directly into Infillion’s operating model.
“This acquisition accelerates Catalina’s vision to modernise our capabilities and deliver on the promise of deterministic, purchase-based marketing at digital speed,” said Kevin Hunter, CEO of Catalina.
“By joining Infillion, we can bring the most sophisticated digital media orchestration to our clients, deliver faster insights to brands, and provide retailers entering the media space with the infrastructure they need to compete effectively while maintaining control of their first-party data.”
“Catalina couldn’t do this alone. Infillion couldn’t do this without Catalina. Together, we believe, we’ve built something the industry has never seen.”
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