CEO says Navan is not far from IPO and expects to be profitable in 2024 | Wilnesh News

The boss of travel and expense management platform Navan told CNBC he is preparing his company’s business for an eventual initial public offering this year, as leaders of private startups become more optimistic about their prospects in the public markets. Another sign.

When asked when Navan would choose to go public, CEO and co-founder Ariel Cohen said the company was close to reaching that milestone. “We can see the signals,” he said, adding that Navan has been revamping its leadership structure and making board changes to show signs of maturity.

Last month, Navan announced the return of Rich Liu as CEO of Navan Travel, the company’s travel arm. Rich Liu is Navan’s former chief revenue officer and “an expert in scaling companies from seed to IPO and beyond.”

Amy Butte, the former New York Stock Exchange chief financial officer who oversaw the U.S. exchange operator’s transition to a public company in 2006, has also been named chair of the audit committee of Navan’s board.

“I don’t want to give a specific date,” Cohen told CNBC, adding that he hasn’t even told his family, let alone his board of directors and Navan employees, when he expects Navan to go public. “At the end of the day, there are some things that are out of my control.”

“The market could collapse. There are elections in the United States, there are wars. So I would never really make a promise to people if I didn’t know that delivery was under my control,” he added.

While Cohen did not reveal a final IPO date for Navan, he said the company is “not that far” away from being ready to go public. He said the company expects to achieve positive cash flow and become profitable for the first time this year.

“The timing needs to include several things,” he said. “Today, in this market, to go public you need to make a profit. We’re not far away from that, but we’re not there yet. We’re going to get there this year. And it’s not going to be easy to do that. .” is growing rapidly. “

Cohen said he was also watching the market closely, but added that while previously investors would have thought a company like his was dependent on buoyant market sentiment around the technology, he now believes the company is “mature enough” to go public on its own. market background.

Cohen said Navan’s current revenue growth is about 40% on average, and the company’s financial technology business (100%) is growing faster than its travel business (30%).

Founded in 2015 as TripActions, Navan began as an enterprise travel management platform focused on empowering travel agents and existing players such as American ExpressBCD Travel and sap agree.The company counted Unilever and Christie’s as clients.

The company later expanded into expenses and payments, offering solutions that automatically link credit cards to a single platform and automate expenses.

Navan is backed by major investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Goldman Sachs and Lightspeed. Navan has raised more than $1.5 billion in venture capital to date and was last valued at $9.2 billion. It competes with Spanish startup TravelPerk, which was recently valued at $1.4 billion.

Last year, Navan made significant improvements to the product with the arrival of its new paid product, Navan Connect.

Most corporate card startups, such as Brex and Ramp, offer users their own branded corporate smart cards. But Navan’s Connect feature, launched in partnership with Citi, allows businesses to provide automated expense management and reconciliation without having to switch corporate card providers.

Like other tech companies, Navan has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence. The company launched its own artificial intelligence personal assistant, Ava, last year. The tool uses generative artificial intelligence to help travelers, travel administrators, and financial managers efficiently plan and budget their travels.

According to Navan, Ava (the automated virtual assistant) now handles about 150,000 chats per month, more than 35% of which were completed in April 2024.

Cohen said Navan is planning to launch a more personal version of Ava’s artificial intelligence assistant, which can generate travel plans based on someone’s past behavior and achieve greater accuracy within six months.

Navan was named to the 2024 CNBC Disruptors 50 list.