IRI Acquires Intelligent Shopper Solutions (ISS) from Kognitiv

IRI, a provider of solutions and services for consumer, retail, and media companies, has acquired Intelligent Shopper Solutions (ISS), a retail consumer insight provider, from Kognitiv. IRI also entered a partnership agreement with Kognitiv, a B2B technology organization. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We are thrilled to welcome ISS to the IRI family as we continue to invest in our industry-leading capabilities and expertise and build on our track record of successful loyalty collaboration programs," said Andrew Appel, president and CEO of IRI, in a statement. "The addition of ISS expands IRI's platform to provide CPG clients a more complete view of consumer shopping habits across even more leading retailers. Further, the talented ISS team brings deep expertise in providing rich, loyalty-based consumer behavioral insights, which we look forward to leveraging, along with our unparalleled data assets from more than 500 million loyalty cards, to deliver enhanced collaboration and growth for IRI clients. We also look forward to our ongoing partnership with Kognitiv, which will create new opportunities for collaboration with our clients, assisting them deliver increased value to their consumers."

ISS became part of Kognitiv following the combination of Aimia's Loyalty Solutions business with Kognitiv in 2020. ISS's platform processes sales and loyalty program data from retailers and allows users to review performance and generate actionable insights that inform merchandising and marketing decisions. ISS also offers a proprietary behavioral segmentation tool that creates customer segments based on shopping behavior.

IRI's partnership with Kognitiv will allow IRI retailer clients to leverage Kognitiv's Platform-as-a-Service to scale their partnerships, connect peer-to-peer, and deliver new value to consumers through hyper-personalized experiences within their ecosystems.

"As part of IRI, ISS will be well-positioned to continue offering best-in-class solutions and capabilities and drive more differentiated growth for CPG retailers and suppliers around the world," said Peter Schwartz, founder and executive chairman of Kognitiv, in a statement. "Partnering with IRI makes tremendous sense as we share a common belief in the strategic application of big data, particularly zero-party data, to drive new opportunities for our clients and new value for their most important consumers. This partnership will allow Kognitiv to accelerate our vision for collaborative commerce and bring a unique and complementary set of capabilities to both organizations."