Antavo Appoints New Chairman to Support Global Expansion
March 15, 2023
Loyalty is a major focus for brands, with Antavo’s latest Global Customer Loyalty Report revealing almost 90% of businesses trust that loyalty initiatives will help them overcome the global inflation crisis.
Antavo, the Enterprise Loyalty Cloud platform, has appointed Zoltan Vardy as chairman as the business continues to scale internationally.
Antavo provides businesses with best-in-class technology to manage experience-based loyalty programs and successfully closed a €10M Series A round in November. The global brand has now bolstered its leadership team with the appointment of Zoltan Vardy, who brings with him a wealth of experience having closed $2 billion in B2B enterprise sales over the course of his 30-year career as a senior corporate executive, entrepreneur and investor.
He is a proven leader in driving international growth, as well as an expert in helping B2B tech startups sell and market to enterprise customers globally.
Zoltan Vardy’s global business background, including as former Senior Vice President/Global Ad Sales at NBC Universal International, combined with his extensive experience in Central and Eastern Europe is a major benefit to Antavo, which was founded in 2012 by four Hungarian co-founders in London. He has extensive previous success in helping businesses from the CEE region reach bigger markets and recognises the potential for startups to scale globally from this part of the world.
Commenting on his appointment, Zoltan said: “Antavo’s recent success is extremely impressive and as an increasing number of brands turn to loyalty to keep customers engaged during an economic downturn, the potential for continued growth is huge.
“During my time as an executive, entrepreneur and advisor, I’ve faced many of the challenges that leaders experience on the journey to breaking into global markets and I look forward to helping the business sharpen its focus, scale its sales and execute its ongoing international growth strategy with impact.”
In the last 2 years, Antavo has signed major global brand customers including BMW, KFC, Kathmandu and BrewDog, resulting in 3.2X year-on-year growth and a three-fold increase in headcount. Over the coming months, the business is set to continue reinvesting in its technology for greater omnichannel capabilities and superior integration with more apps and platforms.
Antavo co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Attila Kecsmar added: “Following a highly successful two years, the business has reached a crucial stage in our growth strategy. We’ve made great strides already and with recent investment and now Zoltan’s expert mentorship, we can continue to develop a powerful, world-first SaaS loyalty product.
“We’re thrilled to bring such talent and knowledge to the board and I’ve no doubt that he will play a crucial part in helping Antavo navigate the coming months as we make ambitious plans a reality.”
Zoltan was an early investor and board member of Brainient, which was acquired by Teads in 2016 and also acted as an advisor to Dexory, formerly BotsAndUs. He has mentored more than 200 startup founders in 25 countries using his proprietary business development blueprint, called The Launch Code.
About Antavo
Antavo is an Enterprise Loyalty Cloud, providing best-in-class technology to manage experience-based, paid, and lifestyle loyalty programs online, in-store, or on mobile.
Antavo’s no-code, API-centric platform makes the loyalty program experience fully customizable and empowers loyalty and marketing teams to run their program internally, without IT help. The company invests 60% of its revenue into its product and issues quarterly product releases.
Antavo is a pure-play loyalty technology vendor recognized by Forrester, Gartner, Loyalty360, and is the preferred choice for loyalty consultants, agencies, and system integrators all over the world. Antavo empowers clients like BMW, KFC, La Cage, Kathmandu and Luisaviaroma, as well as global businesses in the travel, pharma and fashion industries. For more information, visit antavo.com.
