Ireland-based Experian has completed the acquisition of AtData, a US-based data intelligence company specialising in email verification and identity signals. The deal adds more than ten billion email addresses to Experian’s existing data holdings and is intended to strengthen the company’s identity infrastructure for clients operating across digital channels.
Email intelligence as an identity signal
AtData has operated for more than 25 years and has served a broad base of US brands and Fortune 500 companies, providing email validation and first-party data verification. Its platform enables organisations to build customer profiles, assess fraud risk, and support marketing and retention efforts. The acquisition follows a collaborative partnership between the two companies spanning more than 15 years.
The transaction positions Experian to combine AtData’s real-time email intelligence with its own consumer data, analytics, and decisioning platforms. According to the company, this integration is intended to help clients more reliably identify, authenticate, and engage consumers at scale. Verified email signals are increasingly cited by data and identity providers as a high-value input for digital identity workflows, particularly as businesses contend with synthetic fraud and data degradation.
Strategic context and AI ambitions
Experian has framed the acquisition as part of a wider strategy to build what it describes as a privacy-centric identity infrastructure. A company official noted that email intelligence will be integrated into Experian’s AI capabilities, with the goal of improving client outcomes across the customer lifecycle. The acquisition reflects a broader trend among data and analytics firms to consolidate identity assets in response to stricter data privacy regulations and the deprecation of third-party tracking mechanisms.
For AtData, joining Experian represents an opportunity to scale its email intelligence capabilities within a larger data and analytics ecosystem. A company official indicated that the combination is intended to deepen decisioning capabilities for clients across fraud prevention, marketing performance, and first-party data strategies.
Experian operates across more than 30 countries, providing data analytics, credit services, and identity management solutions to financial institutions, businesses, and consumers. The company has made a series of acquisitions in recent years focused on identity verification and fraud prevention, reflecting ongoing industry demand for reliable consumer authentication tools amid growing digital transaction volumes.
