Star Metro - Infillion Acquires Catalina, One of the World's Largest Sources of Deterministic Purchase Data

NEW YORK, NY AND ST. PETERSBURG, FL / ACCESS Newswire / February 23, 2026 / Infillion, the first composable advertising platform purpose-built for agentic media execution, today announced the acquisition of Catalina,the pioneer in deterministic purchase intelligence. Catalina is the only deterministic purchase intelligence network of its kind - four decades, seventy retail banners, 130 million households, $600 billion in annual spending. There is no substitute.

Founded in 1983, Catalina invented purchase-driven measurement and built the world's largest purchase-based intelligence network, processing 11 billion annual shopping trips across seventy major 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.

"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. When you connect purchase truth directly into a composable media platform, brands can finally optimize 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 monetize commerce data through media networks that require enterprise-grade infrastructure expected to grow to more than $200B¹," said Rob Emrich, Executive Chair of Infillion.

Infillion will be leveraging Catalina's U.S. 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

This Changes Everything
By connecting advertising exposure directly to verified purchases within a single unified platform, brands can target audiences based on actual purchase behavior rather than inferred intent, measure incrementality at the SKU level rather than relying on self-reported retailer metrics, and optimize 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 optimize 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

• Target with precision: Activate audiences based on verified purchase behavior rather than inferred intent

• Optimize autonomously: Infillion's platform integrates Catalina's purchase data into intelligent systems that continuously optimize 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

Catalina's executive leadership team will join Infillion, bringing decades of domain expertise in purchase intelligence, retail partnerships, and closed-loop measurement directly into Infillion's operating model.

"This acquisition accelerates Catalina's vision to modernize 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."

About Infillion

Infillion is the first fully composable advertising platform, built to solve the complexity, waste, and opacity in digital media. Born from $750 million in investment and the unification of category-defining technologies including MediaMath, TrueX, Gimbal, and Drawbridge, Infillion engineered these assets into interchangeable, agentic-ready components. Infillion provides a single, flexible infrastructure that serves media buyers, tech decision-makers, and media sellers. Whether through white-glove managed service, self-service control, or API-based automation, Infillion empowers businesses to execute their unique strategies with zero-hop efficiency, proprietary AI logic, and radical data transparency. Headquartered in New York City, Infillion powers the world's leading brands, agencies, and platforms. Learn more at www.infillion.com.

_{¹ eMarketer 2025}

About Catalina

Catalina is a leader in shopper intelligence and highly targeted in-store and digital media that personalizes the shopper's journey. Powered by one of the industry's richest real-time shopper databases, Catalina helps retailers, CPG brands, and agencies optimize every stage of media planning, execution, and measurement. Founded in 1983, Catalina invented the checkout coupon and has pioneered purchase-driven marketing for over forty years. The company's global headquarters is in St. Petersburg, Florida. Learn more at www.catalina.com.

For Inquiries
Contact Laurel Rossi, Chief Growth Officer, Infillion
[email protected]

SOURCE: Infillion

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