Zsuzsa Kecsmar, Co-Founder of Antavo
Name: Zsuzsa Kecsmar
Founder: Antavo
Who is Zsuzsa Kecsmar?
Zsuzsa has been instrumental in growing Antavo from a startup to a scale-up. As Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder, I am transforming the company into a unique loyalty technology vendor, offering a next-gen, best-in-class solution to the loyalty sector. Listed by Forbes as one of Europe’s top 100 female founders in tech, I'm focused on driving market share in the expanding loyalty market.
In less than three sentences tell us about your company and what you do.
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 – connecting brands to their customers in a more impactful, embedded way. Antavo’s global clients include BMW, KFC or Kathmandu and global businesses in air travel, pharma and fashion.
What does BEING a FoundHer mean to you?
I’m focused on growth, the big trends within loyalty, and ensuring our product and company are aligned with that.
As A foundher, I consider it my responsibility to think VERY big. I approach everything with determination and put myself in customers' shoes, helping them identify their challenges and issues and creating a solution to help.
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
Whenever we have a new colleague, I consider it my job to be their cheerleader for life. Once we make the decision to hire people, I make it my mission to support them, not just as an employer but as a fellow female in tech. We work better together.
Did you raise capital? What was the process and avenue you chose to take?
In our Series A round in 2022, we raised €10M. This was led by Euroventures alongside Lead Ventures, iEurope and Innovation Nest and private investors, including Zoltan Vardy.
The process was surprisingly efficient, given that fundraising had slowed considerably in the previous 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 showed significant growth in 2021 and 2022, making the conversations more accessible and successful.
What was an obstacle you overcame to get your business where it is today? Please share the story behind it.
As an innovator, it is our priority to stay one step ahead. In 2020, the focus was heavily shifted in favour of eCommerce instead of retail. Many companies turned towards digitisation and being omnichannel so that they could reach as many customers as possible.
Therefore, loyalty programs had to be geared towards more online solutions. Then, a year later, the market normalised and retail solutions became favourable again. These market changes have been positive for us. At Antavo, 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 in the post-Covid era, online and in-person channels need to be strengthened.
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