Navan, president of the travel and expense management platform, told CNBC that the company is preparing to get its business off the ground for an initial public offering this year, which comes as leaders of the privately held startup consider their prospects on the public market. This is another sign of growing optimism about the future. .
Asked when Nabhan might choose to go public, Ariel Cohen, the company’s CEO and co-founder, said the company is nearing that milestone. “We’re seeing signs of that,” he said, adding that Nabhan is adjusting its leadership structure and making changes to its board as a sign of maturity.
Last month, Navan announced that Rich Liu, former Navan chief revenue officer and “expert in scaling companies from seed to IPO and beyond,” was named CEO of Navan Travel, the company’s travel division. announced that he would return to the business as CEO.
Amy Butte, the former chief financial officer of the New York Stock Exchange who oversaw the U.S. exchange operator’s transition to a public company in 2006, has also been named audit chair of Navan’s board of directors.
“I don’t want to give a date,” Cohen told CNBC, adding that he has not told his family, let alone the board or Navan employees, about the date Navan plans to go public. “At the end of the day, there are things you can’t control.”
“Markets can collapse. We have elections in the U.S., we have wars. So I don’t really promise people anything unless I know the delivery is under my control.” he added.
Cohen declined to give a date for Navan’s eventual IPO, but said it would be “not long” before the business was ready to list on the stock market. The company is on track to become cash flow positive this year and become profitable for the first time, he said.
“Timing has to include a few things,” he said. “Today, to go public in this market you have to make a profit. We’re not that far away, but we’re not there yet. We’re going to get there this year. And you It’s not easy to do that in between.” It’s growing rapidly. ”
Cohen said he is also wary of the market, but whereas in the past investors would have seen companies like his as dependent on positive market sentiment around technology, now Market Background added that the company sees itself as “mature enough” to go public and become independent.
Cohen said Navan currently has average revenue growth of about 40%, with its fintech business (100%) growing faster than its travel business (30%).
Founded in 2015 as TripActions, Navan started as an enterprise travel management platform, aiming to provide a smoother experience for travel agents and existing players. american expressBCD Travel, and SAP Agree.The company is counting likes unilever And Christie’s is also a customer.
The company has since expanded into expense processing and payments with a solution that automatically links credit cards into a single platform and automates expenses.
Navan is backed by major investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Cortue, Goldman Sachs, and Lightspeed. Navan has raised more than $1.5 billion in venture funding and was last valued at $9.2 billion. It competes with Spanish startup Travelpark, which was most recently valued at $1.4 billion.
Navan has significantly evolved its offering over the past year with the introduction of its new expense product, Navan Connect.
Most corporate card startups, such as Brex and Ramp, offer users their own branded corporate smart cards. However, Navan’s Connect feature, deployed in partnership with Citi, allows businesses to offer automatic expense management and reconciliation without changing corporate card providers.
Like other tech companies, Navan is investing heavily in artificial intelligence. Last year, the company announced its own AI personal assistant called Ava. This tool uses generative AI to help travelers, travel managers, and financial managers effectively create travel plans and budgets.
Ava (short for automated virtual assistant) currently handles about 150,000 chats per month, with more than 35% of them managed to completion as of April 2024, Navan said.
Cohen said Navan plans to roll out a more personalized version of Ava’s AI assistant within six months that can more accurately create travel plans based on past behavior.
Navan has been named to CNBC’s 2024 Disruptor 50 list.