Retail technology startup interview: Attila Kecsmar, CEO and Co-founder, Antavo
RTIH gets the lowdown on enterprise loyalty cloud platform, Antavo, which recently closed a Series A round at €10 million, and in 2022 has signed such customers as BMW, KFC, Kathmandu and BrewDog.
RTIH: Tell us about Antavo
AK: Antavo is an enterprise loyalty cloud that provides best-in-class technology to manage experience-based, paid, and lifestyle loyalty programs online, in-store, or mobile.
Our no-code, API centric platform makes the loyalty programme experience fully customisable and empowers loyalty and marketing teams to run their programme internally without IT help.
The platform is leading the way in offering enterprises the opportunity to create, manage and modify their loyalty programmes to connect with the lifestyle of their customers and engages customers beyond the short-lived ‘earn and burn’ transactional approach - and crucially, outside of the buying cycle.
In our hyper digital world that leaves us with an overwhelming amount of choice and information, Antavo helps to reduce noise for people by offering a more targeted and relevant loyalty programne that speaks directly to their interests and needs.
RTIH: What was the inspiration behind setting the company up?
AK: Antavo was founded in London in 2012, and first, we provided an innovative lead generation tool for those engaging their customers on social media. But we realised that the future is in customer loyalty and pivoted to that space in 2016.
Back then, a "CRM" or "email marketing provider" was known, but loyalty was not among the known categories. This changed after the pandemic when Antavo successfully became a category leader in defining next-generation enterprise loyalty technology and achieved 3x growth.
RTIH: What has been the industry reaction thus far?
AK: Absolutely positive.
The market is very receptive towards loyalty programmes - particularly some of the biggest markets in the world, the US, UK, and APAC. Customer retention is getting increasingly important, especially following the Covid crisis and the impending recession.
According to our upcoming Global Customer Loyalty Report 2023, 68% of companies are planning to increase their investments in customer retention. It also costs five times more to acquire new customers than to keep existing ones, leading to loyalty programmes gaining significance.
RTIH: What has been your biggest challenge/setback?
AK: As an innovator, it is our priority to stay one step ahead. In 2020, there was a sea change in favour of e-commerce instead of retail. Many companies turned towards digitisation and being omnichannel to reach as many customers as possible.
Therefore, loyalty programmes had to be geared towards more online solutions. Then a year later the market normalised and thus retail solutions became favourable again.
These market changes have been positive for us. We've been fortunate because we have solutions in both in-store and online channels.
We could react to the changes quickly. Brands need to realise that now in a post-Covid era, online and in-person channels need to be strengthened.
RTIH: What is the biggest issue facing the omnichannel retail space right now?
AK: Online, offline, and mobile channels must be balanced in the post-Covid era.
Brands need to engage customers outside of the buying cycle and create a seamless experience for them. Companies also need to help customers avoid the trappings of multi-channel.
RTIH: What can we expect to see from you over the next 12 months?
AK: Antavo will be the first company to serve enterprise loyalty programmes in a truly SaaS manner, meaning that the product/technology is so powerful and sophisticated that it's capable of handling customer needs without custom developments.
From a technology perspective, we are also building a "Competency centre" so Antavo certified agencies can implement solutions for clients.
Finally, we are a market leader in creating loyalty programmes to which customers feel they belong, not only when purchasing.
Our loyalty programmes help to foster a sense of community among like-minded customers who share the same lifestyle, and it's fun to be part of such a community. We'll continue moving the needle in this category next year.
And last but not least, following the great success of our global Customer Loyalty Report 2022, which, as already mentioned, has been downloaded by 3,000 people, we're currently working on the next edition of our market defining report. It will launch on 6th December.
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