Life360 Expands into Ad-Tech with US$120M Acquisition of Nativo

About Life360 Inc.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Life360, Inc. (ASX: 360) is a global technology company specialising in family safety, connection, and location-based services. The company operates the Life360 app and owns Tile, a leading Bluetooth tracking platform, as well as a pet GPS tracker business. Together, these products form a comprehensive ecosystem that keeps families connected to the people, pets, and things they care about most — with features such as real-time location sharing, driving reports, crash detection, and emergency response services.

Listed on both the NASDAQ and ASX, Life360 serves over 91 million monthly active users worldwide, generating a growing mix of subscription, hardware, and advertising revenue. Its latest move — acquiring Nativo — marks a strategic pivot toward strengthening its advertising infrastructure, enhancing monetisation, and supporting future product innovation.

Strategic Rationale

Life360’s acquisition of Nativo represents a significant milestone in its plan to build a high-quality, family-safe advertising network. The transaction combines Life360’s extensive first-party location and behavioural data with Nativo’s ad-serving technology and publisher relationships, creating a platform capable of connecting brands to modern families across mobile, web, and connected TV channels.

Nativo, headquartered in Los Angeles, operates a premium ad-tech ecosystem that enables advertisers to deliver native and programmatic campaigns in a non-intrusive way. Its proprietary native ad platform is integrated across hundreds of premium publishers, providing direct access to high-quality audiences. By uniting these capabilities with Life360’s rich dataset and trusted brand, the acquisition establishes a full-funnel marketing solution tailored for families — from awareness through engagement and conversion.

Expanding the Advertising Ecosystem

With the acquisition, Life360 will combine its real-world location intelligence and family insights with Nativo’s creative distribution and measurement tools, forming a privacy-forward and contextually relevant advertising environment. The goal is to deliver brand-safe, non-disruptive campaigns across both Life360’s owned platforms and external publisher networks.

The integration will allow advertisers to reach families in meaningful, real-world moments — for example, promoting automotive brands during school drop-off commutes or offering retail promotions during weekend outings. This contextual advertising model aligns with Life360’s mission to maintain trust and enhance everyday experiences for its members.

Nativo’s full ad-tech stack, experienced sales team, and deep publisher integrations will extend Life360’s reach beyond its app ecosystem, allowing the company to compete directly with other location-based advertising leaders. The merger is also expected to deliver operational synergies, with Life360 leveraging Nativo’s established U.S. advertiser relationships to accelerate revenue diversification and margin expansion.

Enhancing User Experience and Privacy

A key focus of the acquisition is preserving the user-first, privacy-led approach that underpins Life360’s global reputation. The company has consistently prioritised data transparency, parental controls, and child-safe design principles — an area where many ad-driven platforms have struggled.

By integrating Nativo’s contextual advertising technology, Life360 will avoid invasive targeting models reliant on third-party cookies or sensitive personal data. Instead, its combined platform will rely on aggregated location insights and anonymised audience segments, aligning with evolving global privacy regulations such as the GDPR and CCPA.

This approach not only safeguards members’ trust but also enhances advertiser confidence by providing access to an engaged, verified audience in a brand-safe environment — particularly appealing to family-oriented and lifestyle brands seeking authenticity over intrusion.

Growth Outlook and Market Opportunity

The global digital advertising market is projected to exceed US$900 billion by 2028, with mobile and contextual advertising driving much of the growth. Life360’s scale — spanning over 180 countries and 91.6 million active users — positions it uniquely to capture share in this space.

Advertising already represents a growing revenue vertical for Life360, complementing its core subscription base from premium plans such as Life360 Gold and Platinum, and hardware sales from Tile trackers. The addition of Nativo’s technology and team will accelerate this trajectory, enabling Life360 to integrate ad-supported offerings that expand monetisation without compromising user experience.

The acquisition is viewed as a strategically sound move that strengthens Life360’s long-term growth outlook. With its mix of recurring subscription revenue and scalable advertising margins, the company is expected to enhance both top-line performance and operating leverage through FY26 and beyond.

Nativo’s contribution is also expected to be immediately accretive to advertising revenue, providing cross-selling opportunities and enabling Life360 to reach advertisers beyond traditional app environments.

Conclusion

Life360’s acquisition of Nativo represents a pivotal step in its evolution from a family safety app to a comprehensive family connectivity and media platform. By combining Life360’s deep behavioural insights with Nativo’s programmatic expertise, the company is building a unique, family-safe advertising ecosystem designed for scalability, trust, and relevance.

With a clear strategy to diversify revenue, leverage its global user base, and enhance both privacy and engagement, Life360 continues to demonstrate strategic agility in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. As it prepares to integrate Nativo in early 2026, the company is well positioned to unlock new growth pathways — uniting families, brands, and publishers in a secure, connected ecosystem.