Kard

Kard (legally Kard Financial, Inc.) operates a commerce media and card-linked rewards platform that connects financial institutions with merchants through verified transaction data and merchant-funded offers. The company describes itself as an independent commerce media network that uses predictive AI and first-party transaction data from millions of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers to generate personalized offers. Its API-first platform handles the backend of loyalty programs: a matching engine maps settled cardholder transactions to potential rewards, and issuers retain control over user experience, branding and offer revenue share without building in-house rewards infrastructure.

For issuers and fintechs, Kard offers loyalty rails that integrate into existing mobile and web touchpoints, tailored offers targeted to cardholder segments, automatic (no click-to-activate) enrollment, impression-level attribution data, and a self-service UI for building and managing programs. Rewards can extend beyond card-linked offers to other banking activities such as direct deposit, bill payment and referrals. Kard states it does not require personally identifiable information from cardholders, collecting only email, an issuer-supplied user ID or username, and ZIP code, and that it has been PCI compliant and SOC 2 certified since before onboarding its first customer.

For marketers and merchants, Kard sells performance-based campaigns: brands set up offers targeting new, existing or lapsed customers, including location-based offers, category discounts, tiered benefits and spending challenges, and pay only for verified purchases rather than impressions. The platform supports A/B testing of messaging, incrementality and ROAS measurement, and AI-driven insights into where customers shop across their wallet. [0][1][2][4][7]

Founding story

Founder Ben Mackinnon has said he conceived Kard after moving into a new apartment and realizing, while reviewing credit card statements, that he had missed roughly $400 in extra points and cash back available through his bank's online shopping portal during a two-month period. A survey of about 900 people found that 75% of consumers did not know they could earn points, miles and cash back via bank shopping portals, because issuers typically promote these offers via email or banking sites. Mackinnon built the initial prototype on nights and weekends while employed elsewhere, and founded the New York City-based company in December 2015. Kard's own about page states Ben founded Kard in 2015 and has served as CEO since inception; previously he was an early employee at Work Market, an enterprise software company later sold to ADP. [2][6]

Business model

Kard operates a two-sided commerce media network: financial institutions, fintechs and card issuers integrate Kard's API-driven rewards infrastructure to run branded loyalty programs, while merchants and brands fund offers and pay on a performance basis for verified purchases attributed to those offers. Issuers have control over offer revenue share, and Kard positions itself as a rewards-as-a-service provider that removes the cost of building and maintaining in-house rewards systems. [0][2][4][7]

Merchant-funded rewards with pay-for-performance pricing: advertisers are charged for verified, settled transactions linked back to their offers rather than for impressions or clicks, and issuers share in offer revenue. [0][4]

Traction

Company-published metrics include 47M+ cardholders in the network, availability at 25,000+ US locations, 15% of previously inactive cardholders re-engaged after a rewarded transaction, 10:1 topline ROAS with 40% more repeat purchases, 5x offer adoption from the no-click-to-activate model, and issuer-side results of a 9% increase in average transaction value, 50% increase in unique users making a transaction, 68% increase in spend, and 3x increase in matched rewards transactions. The company's news list cites inclusion in the 2024 Fintech Innovation 50 and on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private US companies. Earlier, in January 2017, the then four-person team had 4,000 users of its consumer Chrome extension, released in August 2016. [0][1][2][4][6]

Latest developments

On August 13, 2026, Citigroup announced that its U.S. Consumer Cards business had entered into an agreement to acquire Kard Financial, Inc., aiming to combine Citi's scale with Kard's technology, talent and merchant relationships to deliver more personalized rewards to Citi's roughly 70 million cardmembers (as of December 31, 2025). Terms were not disclosed and were described as not material to Citi's financial results; the deal is subject to customary closing conditions, and the two companies will operate independently until closing. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods acted as exclusive financial advisor to Kard, with Latham & Watkins as Kard's counsel and Sullivan & Cromwell as Citi's counsel. Kard published a corresponding post on the same date. [3][7]