Cardlytics Acquires Dosh To Expand Digital Ads Platform

Digital advertising platform Cardlytics plans to acquire Dosh, an advertising platform that offers cash-back rewards, for $275 million in a combined cash and stock deal. The deal should close later in the second quarter.

In 2020, Dosh enabled financial institutions (FIs), FinTechs and neobanks to add the ad platform to their websites and apps as a wallet offering called Powered by Dosh. Cardlytics plans to combine Dosh’s technology with its platform to let advertisers engage with consumers through participating financial services companies, which include FinTechs Venmo and Betterment.

Dosh CEO and Founder Ryan Wuerch told PYMNTS in a recent conversation that the demand for Powered by Dosh, as well as the company’s plans for partnerships with new financial services companies, “will expand our user base to over 60 million.”

“Dosh’s technology is extremely complementary to the long-term financial institution integrations and substantial scale we’ve built over the past 13 years,” said Lynne Laube, CEO and co-founder of Cardlytics.

Dosh, which was founded in 2016, provides personalized offers to its app users from “thousands of merchants,” according to the press release. With over 163 million monthly active users, Cardlytics has provided its consumers with over $500 million in cash-back rewards to date. The platform works with advertisers in the travel, retail, restaurant, direct-to-consumer (D2C), grocery and telecommunications sectors.

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of a variety of new digital innovations for businesses, including transaction-based advertising, Wuerch told PYMNTS. Eighty percent of consumers say they would visit a new store if alerted to cash-back offers, according to Dosh’s research.

“Within the in-store environment, merchants need customers coming back with frequency,” Wuerch said. “In an online environment, they need to be able to differentiate themselves, so that the consumer is moving their dollars to their brand versus another.”