Antavo expands into APAC region; appoints Caleb Gamble to lead regional growth

Enterprise Loyalty Cloud platform, Antavo, has expanded into APAC, appointing Caleb Gamble to lead regional growth.

A seasoned business leader with a proven track record of ensuring leading brands leverage the best in breed loyalty, retail and customer experience solutions, Caleb is passionate about the dynamic intersection of technology, brand and the customer journey. With leadership positions spanning Tyco Retail Solutions, Retailite and WingArc, Caleb spearheads Antavo’s growth across the APAC region. He also served for several years as an Advisory Board Member of the Australian Loyalty Association.

Says Gamble: “Across the APAC region, we are seeing a significant shift in the way customers want to interact with brands and forge more meaningful relationships. What attracted me to Antavo is the solution opens exciting new opportunities for brands to scale better, more personalised interactions that add deeper value to the customer experience.

“We have seen a huge amount of opportunity in the region over the past few years as brands want to unlock the value of customer data to accelerate growth. We’re excited to bring Antavo’s solution in the hands of more brands in the region, so they can put the power of customer data to work in more innovative ways.”

Unlocking the power of customer loyalty and retention

Antavo recently successfully closed its Series A round at $15mAUD led by Euroventures alongside Lead Ventures, iEurope and Innovation Nest and private investors including Zoltan Vardy, empowering the company to develop its best-in-class SaaS platform. The funding is set to enable the expansion of Antavo’s global presence and further development of the best-in-class, no-code loyalty technology for enterprises.

The new investment will also enable Antavo to continue reinvesting in its technology for greater omnichannel capabilities and superior integration with more apps and platforms, while expanding its global presence. In 2022, the company signed major global brand customers including BMW, KFC, Kathmandu and BrewDog, resulting in 3.2X year-on-year growth and a 3 fold increase in headcount.

Now more than ever, customer retention is becoming the top priority for businesses as the world today faces a looming recession and new customer acquisition remains challenging. Key industry reports have highlighted this shift including Fortune Business Insights, which stated that “the loyalty management market is forecast to be worth $24B by 2029 due to rising consumer demand for personalised solutions”, while similarly, Antavo’s Global Customer Loyalty Report 2022 found that 82% of businesses plan to double down on loyalty in the next three years.

With a focus on rewarding customers for living in accordance with their interests, for example, an activewear and outdoor equipment brand could issue reward points to customers when they complete hikes and climbs,  Antavo is enabling a transition from the traditional, transactional, financial-only rewards programs towards programmes that fosters long-lasting loyalty and customer engagement outside of the buying cycle.

How Antavo is helping Rip Curl build community

Within the APAC region, one customer already scaling their community engagement strategy is surfing retail giant Rip Curl, which has taken its membership program global, leveraging Antavo to bring all its customer data into one streamlined community ecosystem.

Says Michael Scott, CCO, Rip Curl: “As old as surfing culture is, we’ve seen a real ‘renaissance’ since COVID-19 of more people going back in the water. But what we realised was there was no formal, or informal community at play. So we identified a pretty major opportunity for us to build the largest and most engaged surfing community in the world. This is what our membership program has been designed to do – and thanks to Antavo we can deliver more personalised messages at scale and do away with traditional batch and blast messaging.”

“The team at Antavo have worked with us to help ensure we have the right platform upon which we can build and scale our membership program. We’re thrilled that Antavo is expanding its presence in the APAC region as we invest in more innovative ways to ensure our retail brand remains future-fit as we continue to evolve our brand to engage, inspire, educate and entertain our community.”

A no-code platform transforming the future of customer engagement

Antavo’s no-code, self-serve platform provides brands with a new format that enables far more creativity and management without the need for IT resources. Drag-and-drop interfaces and visual editors, facilitate quick and easy changes to provide users with next generation loyalty programs featuring gamification, social interactions and lifestyle engagement.

Says Zoltan Toth, partner at Euroventures: “We believe that current market trends of increasing customer acquisition cost, unlimited choice for consumers and the increasing difficulty to acquire relevant consumer data magnifies the importance of customer engagement and loyalty programs. Antavo has tremendous growth potential. We are excited to help the team to grab this opportunity and expand its services globally and meet the challenges of a growing organisation and client base.”

Says Attila Kecsmar, co-founder and CEO of Antavo: “All enterprises today need more creative and direct ways to engage their customers beyond transactions to keep their market share, even if the spend is declining precipitously. In the post-pandemic world, loyalty programs are having a renaissance in providing this embedded brand love. Antavo understands this, as do our investors, and we are excited to receive their backing.”

Says Zsuzsa Kecsmar, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Antavo: “Antavo saw incredible growth last year, which, along with the dynamic loyalty program landscape change, brought us to a rebrand as Enterprise Loyalty Cloud. This refreshed position better encompasses the company’s goal and the support of our investors in our Series A round means we can continue to develop a powerful, world-first SaaS loyalty product that encourages and nurtures lasting brand love through differentiation and unique lifestyle engagement.”