Cardlytics Adds Nearly 4 Million Consumers to It Rewards Platform, But Forecasted Revenues Fall Short

Rewards platform provider Cardlytics Inc. on Tuesday reported its user base and revenue per active user grew in the third quarter, but the company nonetheless trimmed its full-year revenue forecast.

The company’s primary product, Cardlytics Direct, provides merchant-funded rewards programs distributed through financial institutions’ online and mobile-banking sites. Cardlytics Direct revenue rose 14% year-over-year to $34.4 million, which helped boost total company revenues 10% to $34.6 million.

Monthly active users of offers through banks and credit unions rose 7% to 59.3 million from 55.4 million a year earlier. Average revenue per user increased 6% to 58 cents from 55 cents in 2017’s third quarter.

The big project on Atlanta-based Cardlytics’ plate is accommodating new customers from JPMorgan Chase & Co., the nation’s largest credit issuer and a leading debit card issuer, for which the company has been preparing for months. Cardlytics says it’s enhancing its platform to serve more than 150 million users from all its financial-institution clients.

“We are excited to have begun rolling out Cardlytics Direct with Chase, which we expect to significantly increase our [financial-institution user] base over the next few quarters, and further strengthen our ability to deliver impactful and profitable growth for marketers,” Cardlytics chief executive and co-founder Scott Grimes said in a statement.

Despite the double-digit increase, third-quarter revenues fell short of the $36 million to $38 million the company predicted in August. Plus, Cardlytics cut its earlier prediction for total 2018 revenues by about 5%, to $146 million to $148 million. The company posted a net loss for the quarter of $8.37 million compared with a $2.82 million loss a year earlier.