With customer acquisition costs soaring, building loyalty among existing customers is of critical importance. Well-designed loyalty programs offer a number of benefits for brands including increased share-of-wallet, improved referrals, and increased trust for future purchases. Antavo is an enterprise-grade loyalty program technology platform that allows companies to seamlessly deploy their rewards programs across online, in-store, and on the go. The omnichannel infrastructure platform allows brands to offer traditional earnings opportunities to their customers through purchases but customers can also earn through non-spending behavioral actions like recycling products, completing surveys, writing reviews, or even take related actions such as completing a workout for a fitness company program. Antavo is a no-code, with a drag-and-drop interface to ensure that brands are able to get their programs up and running without a dependency on IT departments or budgets by focusing on API-based integrations with POS systems, mobile apps, and popular e-commerce platforms. The SaaS company counts companies like BMW, KFC, Telarus, Brewdog, and Kathmandu as clients.
London TechWatch caught up with Antavo CEO and Cofounder Attila Kecsmar to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to €11M, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
It was our Series A round which raised €10M and was led by Euroventures alongside Lead Ventures, iEurope, and Innovation Nest and private investors including Zoltan Vardy.
Tell us about your product or service.
We are a Software as a Service (SaaS) company that provides best-in-class loyalty program technology for enterprises which allows them to create and manage their loyalty programs wherever their customers are: online, in-store, or on the go.
What inspired the start of Antavo?
We founded the company in London in 2012, and our product was a lead-generation tool for 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 a known thing, but loyalty was not among the known categories. This changed after the pandemic, when Antavo achieved 3x growth. Now, being a “loyalty program technology vendor” is a thing, and a big thing at that!
How is it different?
The traditional ‘earn points and spend them on coupons and discounts’ loyalty program concept has been around for over 100 years. The industry was stagnating and was in desperate need of innovation. Enter Antavo – we have revolutionised how customers can engage with a loyalty program by creating new exciting opportunities for some of the biggest brands in the world. For instance, customers can earn points even if they aren’t spending money, like writing product reviews, completing surveys, or bringing back used products for recycling. Our loyalty programs also help brands connect with the lifestyle of their customers. As an example, one of our clients is a mountain wear retailer, that offers bonus points for program members who complete hiking challenges (using an integrated sports app to track their progress).
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
Antavo Enterprise Loyalty Cloud is part of the customer loyalty management software market, which was worth $844M in 2021, and is predicted to reach $1.82B by 2030. As for the overall market of offering companies loyalty management solutions (not just technologies), it is predicted to reach $18.2B by 2026.
What’s your business model?
We charge an annual SaaS licence fee that is based on the number of ‘Active Loyalty Program Members’. In addition, our clients pay us for setting up the platform and connecting with their internal systems.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown??
Currently, our runway is 30+ months and our client contracts are long-term (over three years), so we believe we are in a good position to weather the economic downturn. Critically, our solution is deeply embedded in our client’s tech stack, making it very sticky and this positively impacts our churn rate – which is remarkably low (a fact we are incredibly proud of). Finally, many of our clients have less cyclical and less sensitive sales cycles and therefore are less impacted by temporary cutbacks.
What was the funding process like?
Surprisingly efficient given the fact that fundraising has slowed considerably in the last six months. We had prepared ourselves for a longer-than-usual fundraising cycle, but we found that investors were very excited by our platform, its capabilities, and our growth opportunities. We were able to show significant growth in 2021 and 2022 and that made the conversations that much easier and successful.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
We felt a particularly acute pressure to close the investment round before the markets collapsed.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
We heard time and again from investors that they were particularly impressed with the resilience, experience, and endurance of the management team. We are a successful high-growth business that has not only endured but scaled quickly over the last couple of years.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We are aiming to set up a US sales operation, launch a competency program for clients and partners, and increase the stickiness and technical capabilities of our platform.
What advice can you offer companies in London that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Every investor is saying the same thing and we agree: The ‘Tech Winter’ is here, so control what you can: your costs and focus on profitability over growth. Cash is king, as they say.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We plan on expanding into the US market as there is significant growth potential for us.