What Happened at Navan in 2023
Samantha Shankman
•20 Dec 2023•
Navan turned eight this year, the most transformative year since our inception. Let’s take a quick look at the highlights.
February
The first quarter brought huge news: TripActions transformed into Navan — a complete rebrand with new design and messaging. But a new look was only the beginning.
The new name, a combination of the words “navigate” and “avant,” came with a new app that consolidated all travel and expense offerings into a unified experience. Navan also became the first travel company to integrate generative AI across our product set with the launch of the AI-powered virtual assistant Ava.
April
Navan acquired Tripeur — a modern corporate travel and expense management company serving India’s $35 billion travel market. The agreement marked the fifth acquisition for the Navan Group in two years, following purchases in the UK, Germany, Sweden, and Spain. Read the interview with Tripeur founder and now Navan VP of Product India, Thiagarajan Rajagopalan.
May
We revamped the Navan Rewards program so customers could earn rewards when booking eligible hotels that save their company money. The rewards can be used on personal travel booked through Navan, and Navan fully funds the rewards.
Ava’s role expanded from support to personal data analyst, capable of helping travel admins, finance managers, and CFOs streamline their T&E programs.
June
Navan Connect emerged onto the market and completely changed the fintech landscape as we knew it. Navan Connect’s innovative card-link technology brings the magic of Navan Expense to companies with any enrolled corporate Mastercard® or Visa® card so they can keep their existing banking relationships and access the real-time control, spend visibility, and automated expense reports previously available only with Navan cards. In other words, companies can now get the best of both worlds.
September
Navan paved the way for an AI-powered, hyper-personalized hotel concierge with the announcement of Concierge by Ava, which learns users’ travel patterns and analyzes dozens of other real-time factors to serve up the most relevant options and makes booking easier than ever.
Navan led the way in New Distribution Capability (NDC), with 10 European airlines available on the platform. And, when American Airlines released its NDC in April, Navan was one of the only TMCs to offer it on day one.
October
Navan formed an unprecedented strategic agreement with Citi, the third-largest U.S. bank, that combines Navan’s all-in-one travel and expense platform with Citi’s leading commercial card solutions. The launch of Navan Connect and Navan’s agreement with Citi underscore the incredible power of partnerships and collaboration.
Speaking of big announcements and financial partnerships, Navan brought its vibrant colors and fresh messaging to two of the biggest financial centers in the world, London and New York City, in a major ad campaign that appeared across nearly 2,000 screens with showstoppers in both places.
Motion ads shone in places like Waterloo Station and Kensington in London and above and below ground in NYC, with the crown jewel being our Grand Central subway station domination.
Navan also premiered an 8,000-square-foot animated billboard in front of the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas during SuiteWorld and Money20/20, and displayed its logo across taxi stands at the airport.
November
Navan Connect’s “Bring Your Own Card” (BYOC) technology became available in Europe and the UK, extending its reach to 10 different currencies and more than 40 UK and EU banks for a total of nearly 250 global banks.
With tools that make it easy to meet in person, while saving time and money, Navan customers also had a productive and fulfilling year.
2023 Case Studies + Logos
- Gipper Ditches TravelPerk and Expensify for Navan
- Apptegy Ditches Patchwork T&E Solutions for Navan
- How Literati Cut Travel Costs 14% With Navan
- Path Robotics Reaches 100% Adoption in Less Than 3 Months
- Navan Transforms How PayFit's Finance Team Manages Travel
- 1E Streamlines Three T&E Solutions Into One Platform
- Asana Enhances Global Efficiency with Navan’s Full Suite
- Navan Solves Pluralsight’s Global T&E Pain Points
We’re thrilled to be recognized for our commitment to powering in-person connections and proud of the accolades we’ve received for innovative tech solutions in travel, expense, and spend management. Here are just some of the nods of approval this year:
- Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech 2023: Navan Connect was awarded in the Fintech, Crypto, Blockchain, and Web3 category.
- Forbes Cloud 100: Navan ranked No. 11 — Navan’s highest placement yet on the annual list.
- Forbes Fintech 50: Navan was included in the B2B Banking category.
- Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards 2023: Navan was an honoree in the Best User Experience Design category.
- Skift Idea Awards: Ava was awarded as the No. 1 Industry Innovation, and Navan Connect the No. 1 Problem Solver.
- Inc Power Partners: Navan was awarded in the Financial Services and Fintech categories.
- 2023 Webby Awards: Finalist in the Apps, dApps, and Software, Work & Productivity category.
- 2023 Fintech Breakthrough Awards: Winner of the Expense Management Innovation Award.
- FinTech Futures’ 2023 PayTech Awards: Winner of the Best Spend Management System Award.
- BTN Europe’s Leading TMCs 2023: Awarded as Leader in UK/EU.
- Built In’s 2023 Best Places to Work: Recognized at National Large Company Level and awarded among Best Places to Work in Austin, New York, and San Francisco.
- Comparably Best Company Outlook 2023: Recognized among companies with the brightest futures, based on employee feedback.
- IDC Report: Navan named a T&E Leader for Enterprise Companies.
- G2: Navan ranked among the Best Global Software Companies for 2023, was crowned the preeminent travel solution in Europe, and held top honors across all scoring grids in which it ranks, including the new Travel & Expense Management Software category.
What’s most satisfying, however, is how our customers used Navan tools and technology to get their teams back together for the in-person connections at the heart of why we do what we do.
The Talent team outperformed its goals, including hiring velocity and delivering against the global headcount plan. This team knows how to attract, recruit, and hire top talent, all while providing a best-in-class candidate and hiring manager experience. Through the Compass University Program, Navan also hosted 20 interns in North America across multiple teams.
Navan also celebrated its team members through events like the Women in Revenue Talent event in London and the Latinas in Tech meetup in San Francisco.
We told our team’s stories with content spotlights from the Women’s History Month series and a highlight on talented boomerang employees, as well as individual spotlights, including:
- SDR Manager Dalin Jaafir on Culture and Career Potential at Navan’s Berlin Office
- Dan Corwin Shares Sales Leadership Tips
- Senior Sales Director Catie Gehl Shares Her Navan Experience
- Luca Gotta's Growth Journey at Navan
- Oreva Otobo's Rise in Sales at Navan
Navan is hiring for key roles across the globe. Check them out here and hear more from current teammates about what it’s like to work at Navan.
Placing a high value on in-person connections is the foundation of Navan — and it’s why we continue to invest in and expand our offices. Navan has dozens of office spaces across North America, Europe, Israel, and Asia-Pacific. All offices are intentionally designed to cultivate an environment that optimizes employee productivity, teamwork, and connection.
Openings and expansions in 2023 included:
- May: New Tel Aviv office and expanded London office
- August: New Austin and Bangalore offices
- September: Expanded Sydney office
- October: New Paris and Amsterdam offices
- November: New San Francisco office
- December: New New York City office
Navan leadership lived our company values this year by returning to industry events and conferences in person. Whether at TechCrunch Disrupt or SaaStr in San Francisco, the Skift Global Forum or NY Tech Week in New York, SuiteWorld or Money20/20 in Las Vegas, GBTA in Dallas and Hamburg, or SaaSock in Dublin, these conversations and time spent together in person truly move the industry forward.
Navan also hosted 50-plus events across 20 U.S. and four European cities, including dinners, suites at top sporting events, and industry meetups that helped facilitate conversations with customers and prospects.
The pace of innovation at Navan remains unmatched. In a testament to Navan’s commitment to its customers, the team released feature after feature to solve pain points in travel and expense management.
As a result, more and more Navan travel customers extended their services to take advantage of the full suite of products that Navan provides — driving a 90% year-over-year increase in customers that shift from travel-only to the full T&E solution.
Here’s a look at just five of the dozens of Navan Travel and Navan Expense features introduced and updated throughout 2023:
Navan’s virtual assistant, Ava, can now analyze real-time spending data to provide insights into T&E questions and proactively find opportunities for savings.
Navan Expense Budgets revolutionizes how finance teams and budget owners manage their financial plans, offering a seamless, integrated, and flexible budgeting solution within Navan Expense.
The Custom Benefits feature empowers finance leaders to craft specific, unique benefits policies with the same visibility and control as Navan Expense’s standard benefits policies. For example, Navan customers have created custom benefit policies for milestone celebrations and monthly meetups, which cover virtual and in-person meals or activities with teammates.
The Rail Alternative feature lets travelers know when there’s a viable rail alternative during a flight search. When there is, travelers can easily swap their view of flight schedules and see rail options instead to help companies meet sustainability goals.
The VAT on Item feature makes it easier to collect accurate tax information for business expenses and, therefore, to reclaim VAT. This is a game-changing feature for expense managers and finance teams that must navigate the complicated world of VAT.
“Bigger than mobile. More important than the Internet. Industrial Revolution–level.” That’s how Navan CTO and Co-Founder Ilan Twig feels about generative AI, which he says “will go far beyond changing the game; it will create an entirely new playground.”
Ilan shared his unique understanding of the potential of generative AI through a series of articles. The Navan product releases throughout 2023 speak for themselves: Ilan and the rest of the Navan team are proactively building the next generation of technology on top of these large language-learning models.
- How to Maximize Your Company’s Generative AI Potential Using Static, Dynamic, and Recursive Prompts
- Why AI Will Go Big By Thinking Small
- Why This New AI Model Changes Everything
Ilan’s not the only one who puts pen to paper to share the philosophy behind our work at Navan. See what passionate leaders across the organization have to say
- Yuval Refua, VP, Product: How Culture Drives Innovation at Navan Expense
- Tim Russo, Senior Director, Fintech BD & Partnerships: How Navan’s Partnerships Are Redefining the Fintech Industry
- Julia Jansen, VP, Global Finance Operations: How Navan Empowers and Unlocks Excellence of Finance Teams
Additionally, Navan’s talented engineers contribute to the Navan Tech Blog.
Navan releases new guides and reports each year, adding to its vast repository of data and information impacting the travel and financial industries.
- How Generative AI Can Transform Your T&E Program
- How to Cut $1 Million from Your T&E Program
- Mastering Corporate Travel 101
Navan provides customers with the information they need when they need it:
None of this would be possible without our trusted partners, suppliers, travel managers, finance leaders, operational savants, and business travelers who trust us with their corporate travel and expense management.
As highlighted in the introduction, the launch of Navan Connect underscores a new paradigm for disruption based on collaboration, which we apply to our product as much as our relationships.
We can’t wait to work alongside all of you in the new year! Bring it, 2024. We’re ready for you.