How Canva Scaled Global Travel and Expense Management with Navan

Region

APAC: Asia-Pacific

Headquarters

Sydney, Australia

Company Size

Enterprise (2,500+ employees)

Industry

Tech

Products Used

• Navan Travel Payments
• Navan Expense
• Navan Business Travel

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Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Canva is one of the world’s fastest-growing technology companies, empowering 230 million monthly active users to design anything, anywhere. As Canva increased its workforce and hosted ambitious global events, the need for an intuitive, scalable, and all-in-one travel and expense platform became clear. After a comprehensive search, Canva decided that Navan was the partner best-positioned to evolve with them and empower their employees to focus on creativity and collaboration — not administrative hassles.

Before Navan

Before partnering with Navan, Canva’s travel was largely unmanaged, with an HR specialist handling all bookings manually. This approach was time-consuming, inefficient, and difficult to scale as the company grew. Canva was looking for a more efficient, self-service platform that employees across the organization could easily access — one that would provide real-time visibility, streamlined booking, and robust reporting for better oversight and decision-making.

Why Navan

When evaluating options, Canva prioritized a solution that offered user-first design, scalability, and an all-in-one experience. Navan stood out immediately with its intuitive interface and powerful functionality, making travel booking, corporate card management, and expenses simple for everyone.

The difference was clear from the start for end users like Kate Marsden, Head of Global Brand Partnerships and Design School at Canva. “Navan just feels so much easier. It’s super seamless,” she shared. “With other platforms, I’ve had to book flights on one, hotels on another. Now I can do it all within the same platform.”

After four years of travel management success with Navan, Canva decided to add expense management. Moving to an all-in-one solution allowed for even greater control, compliance, and simplicity across travel and spend operations. Canva also rolled out BrexPay for Navan globally for travel, enabling seamless transactions in multiple currencies, including AUD, USD, GBP, EUR, and more.

“The value Navan brings to me and my organization is hard to quantify — it gives us freedom,” said Rudy Batts, Head of Global Spend at Canva. “My stakeholders can build and run programs without needing to create complex processes or infrastructure. It’s incredibly self-serve and simple.”

“

Navan just feels so much easier. It’s super seamless. With other platforms, I’ve had to book flights on one, hotels on another. Now I can do it all within the same platform.

Kate Marsden

Head of Global Brand Partnerships and Design School, Canva

Results with Navan

Since adopting Navan, policy compliance has improved significantly, especially in hotel and airline bookings. Previously, Canva lacked clear visibility into who was booking within policy, making it difficult to monitor compliance effectively. With Navan, 94% of bookings are now in policy. “We’ve seen a meaningful improvement in travel policy compliance,” Rudy noted. “With better hotel and flight bookings — and the ability to recoup unused tickets — Navan helps us save in a smart, scalable way.”

Andy O’Mara, Head of Travel and Expense at Canva, emphasized the impact on financial reporting and operational efficiency. “If I have to submit an urgent report to a senior lead,” he said, “I can usually do that in less than a minute simply by going into the dashboard, applying the relevant filters, and sharing those details. It’s clearly formatted and very easy to understand.”

Navan’s dynamic policy controls, real-time reporting, and duty-of-care features gave Canva both flexibility and control, helping to ensure a seamless booking experience while keeping leadership informed and compliant.

“

We’ve seen a meaningful improvement in travel policy compliance. With better hotel and flight bookings — and the ability to recoup unused tickets — Navan helps us save in a smart, scalable way.

Rudy Batts

Head of Global Spend, Canva

Managing Global Travel

One of the biggest tests of Canva’s travel program came with Canva Create 2025, the company’s flagship event hosted in Los Angeles, California. Thousands of Canva users from across the world gathered for a day of celebration of creativity, design, and innovation.

As the official travel partner for Canva Create, Navan helped manage travel for every Canva employee, affectionately called “Canvanauts.” All Canvanauts and Canva Create speakers enjoyed smooth travels to Los Angeles using Navan’s platform, demonstrating its ability to handle major, large-scale global events seamlessly.

“Navan was an absolute game-changer for us in helping all our travelers get to Create safely.” said Jimmy Knowles, Global Head of Experiential at Canva and one of the leaders behind Create. “Travel logistics can easily become a nightmare at this scale, but with Navan, we knew we had a reliable partner to make it all happen without the stress.”

Thanks to Navan’s seamless coordination and centralized management, the Canva team could focus on delivering an unforgettable event without being bogged down by travel logistics.

“

If you’re building out a travel and expense platform, my advice is to use Navan for that all-in-one instance.

Andy O'Mara

Head of Travel and Expense, Canva

Future with Navan

As Canva continues to grow and expand its global footprint, the need for scalable, intelligent systems becomes even more important. With Navan as a trusted partner, Canva is equipped to support its evolving travel and expense needs without compromising on experience or efficiency. The combination of user-first design, powerful data insights, and flexible policy management means Canva can continue to operate with the agility and simplicity that define its brand.

Navan isn’t just a tool — it’s part of the foundation Canva relies on to support its people and its mission to empower the world to design. “If you’re building out a travel and expense platform,” said Andy, “my advice is to use Navan for that all-in-one instance. It’s user-friendly, saves you a lot of time, and gets your travel program up and running.”