Native Acquires Frontline Research Group to Build the Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Layer for Africa’s $1.7 Trillion Traditional Trade Market

Native Acquires Frontline Research Group to Build the Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Layer for Africa’s $1.7 Trillion Traditional Trade Market

Acquisition brings market share feeds from 14 African markets into Native's platform — connecting the actions that grow share with the measurement that proves whether share moved

NEW YORK, United States of America, July 21, 2026/APO Group/ -- Native (https://Native.io/), the agentic intelligence company building the operating system for offline trade, today announced it has acquired Frontline Research Group (https://FrontlineResearchGroup.com/), a leading market intelligence business serving consumer goods companies across more than 14 African markets.

Native is acquiring Frontline to add independent market share data that tells brands whether their commercial actions are translating into real gains. Together, the two companies give consumer goods companies a complete picture from action to outcome within a single subscription. The acquisition extends Native's footprint from Latin America into Africa, marking the next step in the company's plan to serve the world's largest offline consumer markets.

Native is building the operating system for offline trade, a platform that helps consumer goods companies see, act and measure across the world's largest fragmented markets. Its global subscriptions include Lattice (field execution), Strata (distribution analytics) and Overwatch (commercial optimization), giving brands the tools to decide where to act and grow share in fragmented, physical trade environments.

Africa represents a vastly underpenetrated growth market for global consumer goods companies. Approximately $1.7 trillion in consumer spend flows through the continent annually, with ~80% moving through traditional trade channels. These fragmented networks of more than 10 million analog stores have historically been difficult for the largest global brands to see, measure and act on.

“Most people would look at Frontline and see a regional research company. We see a proprietary data asset at the center of a $1.7 trillion consumer economy,” said Matt McNabb, CEO of Native. “Frontline has built market share signals in 14 African markets that cannot be credibly scraped, inferred or bought off the shelf. When that signal connects to Native’s 3D Store Graph and agentic workflows, the equation changes: brands can see what is happening in the store, understand whether share actually moved and know what to do next. That is the operating system we are building for the offline trade.”

Frontline’s 14 African market share panels give Native a proprietary measurement layer in one of the world’s most important offline consumer regions. Trusted by global consumer leaders including AB InBev, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Diageo, Pepsi, and Unilever, Frontline brings deeply verticalized market share data to Native’s platform as a durable input for agentic intelligence.

“Frontline has built a unique regional position in the market by delivering Traditional Trade market share and other market intelligence in some of the world’s most important offline consumer markets,” said Sean Barnes, CEO of Frontline. ."Native's platform gives that data a new dimension, pairing our regional depth with major advancements in machine-readable retail, agentic AI and subscription software. That is a fundamentally stronger offering than either company could deliver alone, and it opens up an exciting new chapter for our team."

Sean Barnes will join Native as Chief Strategy Officer following the close of the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Native.

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Media Contact:
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About Native:

Native is an agentic intelligence company digitizing analytics for the world’s largest offline consumer markets. Native transforms analog stores into machine-readable 3D Store Graphs — digital databases of physical retail environments where every product and fixture can be identified, placed and measured — enabling AI agents to surface insights and direct commercial action. Native’s global subscriptions include Lattice, Strata and Overwatch. Native is headquartered in New York City with operations across Latin America and Africa.

About Frontline Research Group:

Frontline Research Group is a leading African traditional trade market share intelligence platform, with subscription panels across more than 15 markets. Its proprietary data assets help global consumer brands measure market share, understand channel dynamics and track change across some of the world’s most important offline consumer markets. Following the acquisition, Frontline will become Native’s Africa platform.