Company advances its platform, deepens strategic alliances, and drives ecosystem growth
NEW YORK – May 19, 2026 – impact.com, the global infrastructure for partnership-driven commerce, today reported a first-quarter defined by significant product innovation, industry recognition, and expansion of its global partnership ecosystem. The company broadened its partnership network, helping brands, creators, publishers, and retailers drive measurable growth across the customer journey, welcoming over 800 new clients to its customer portfolio. The company now powers more than 2 million partnerships, collectively generating over $110 billion in annual gross merchandise value (GMV).
In the first quarter, impact.com announced a strategic alliance with Rakuten to modernize the affiliate and performance marketing ecosystem. The collaboration combines impact.com’s leading partnership technology platform with Rakuten Advertising’s global network, managed services expertise, and Rakuten Rewards’ consumer intelligence.
“Partnerships are fundamentally reshaping how businesses grow, moving from a supporting channel to a primary driver of performance and customer connection,” said David A. Yovanno, CEO of impact.com. “As this shift accelerates, brands need more than fragmented tools. They need a unified approach that brings together technology, data, and partner relationships. Our focus is building the infrastructure to discover, manage, and measure every type of partnership with clarity and scale.”
In the first quarter, impact.com delivered major enhancements across the brand, partner, creator, and customer referral experience, giving teams a faster, smarter, and more connected way to drive growth through partnerships.
A refreshed impact.com platform experience makes partnership management more intuitive from the moment users log in. A streamlined dashboard, improved navigation, dark mode, redesigned pages, and performance improvements help brands, publishers, creators, and agencies to move from insight to action with less friction. The new YouTube Creator Partnerships API integration strengthens creator discovery, activation, and reporting by giving brands access to verified, opt-in creator and audience data at scale.
Additional Q1 product enhancements include:
- Expanded AI-powered capabilities within ask impact embed intelligence directly into daily partnership workflows. Users can now access publisher performance snapshots in chat, get deeper product support, discover relevant Help Center and Partnerships Experience Academy content, and engage with localized languages.
- New creator and commerce capabilities make discovery, activation, and measurement more powerful. Partner content category insights help brands identify partners with stronger audience and content fit, and expanded social listening capabilities across LinkedIn, YouTube, and X gives teams a broader view of how partners and creators drive influence across channels.
- Customer referral programs are now easier to launch and scale. Brands can activate programs with no developer support, create high-performing referral emails faster with an upgraded email editor, and use auto-funding and bulk rewards to reduce manual work and reward participants at scale.
Together, these innovations reflect impact.com’s continued investment in the future of partnership-led growth, delivering smarter workflows, scalable creator and referral programs, richer measurement, and a platform experience built for the next era of partnerships.
In Q1, impact.com released its annual Affiliate Marketing Benchmark Report, delivering insights from 2,368 brands and nearly $116 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV). The report provides a comprehensive view of evolving consumer purchase behavior, and equips marketers with data-driven strategies to optimize partnership performance in 2026 and beyond.
impact.com also announced the return of its three-day Partnerships Experience event (iPX), taking place June 9–11 in Austin, Texas. iPX brings together creators, brands, and innovators redefining how partnerships drive growth, featuring a keynote from Allie K. Miller, a world-renowned AI leader and strategist who advises organizations including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
The Partnership Economy Podcast reached 500,000 downloads, becoming a leading resource for how global brands navigate partnerships at scale. Season 7 is now underway, featuring new conversations with industry leaders from CNN and Best Buy. Additionally, impact.com’s Partnerships Experience Academy (PXA) surpassed a major milestone, reaching more than 50,000 learners globally. The program continues to equip marketers with the skills needed to launch, scale, and optimize performance, creator, and referral partnership programs.
impact.com’s leadership in the partnership economy was further validated through more than 25 award wins and shortlist recognitions in Q1, including being named the Top Partnering Platform in the World by Market Growth Reports. impact.com earned eight wins at the Performance Marketing Awards across key categories such as Affiliate Network or SaaS of the Year, and multiple campaign and client partnership categories spanning retail, travel, content commerce, and affiliate program optimization. The company received additional shortlist recognition at the US Partnership Awards for excellence in full-funnel strategy, platform innovation, data-driven execution, affiliate program optimization, and standout partnerships.
Learn more at impact.com.
