Navan, the corporate travel and spending platform, ended its first day of trading on Nasdaq on Thursday down 20% from its IPO price of $25, resulting in a valuation of about $4.7 billion for the 10-year-old company.
The company was the first to use a new SEC rule allowing public listings during a government shutdown.
Unlike the traditional IPO route, which requires SEC regulators to review and grant final approval, companies using the closing workaround can obtain automatic approval of their IPO documents 20 days after submitting their price range, avoiding the need for manual SEC approval.
But the updated mechanism carries a risk: the government can review the documents later. If the SEC later discovers material deficiencies or undisclosed issues, the company could be forced to change its filings, which could lead to a decline in the stock price and even possible litigation.
Despite this risk, Navan decided to proceed with its IPO, primarily because the bulk of its registration statements had already been reviewed by SEC staff before the government shutdown began on October 1.
The stock’s initial decline is likely influenced, at least in part, by this regulatory uncertainty.
The market reaction to Navan’s offer is being closely watched by other IPO bidders. Startups that want to go public before the end of the year must decide quickly whether they are prepared to face regulatory unknowns or delay their filing until next year.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
Navan has been waiting to go public for several years. The company reportedly filed its confidential IPO paperwork in 2022 and planned to debut with a $12 billion valuation in early 2023.
The company, formerly known as TripActions, was last valued at $9.2 billion when it raised a $154 million Series G round in October 2022.
Navan’s clients include Shopify, Zoom, Wayfair, OpenAI and Thomson Reuters. The company says its AI-powered assistant, Ava, handles about 50% of customer conversations related to booking or changing flight, hotel and car rental reservations. Navan’s expense management solution helps businesses manage employee expenses with features like automated receipt scanning and categorization.
The company generated $613 million in revenue over the past 12 months (up 32%), with losses of $188 million, according to its H1.
Navan’s largest venture capital backers before its IPO were Lightspeed (holding a 24.8% stake), solo VC Oren Zeev (an 18.6% stake), Andreessen Horowitz (12.6%) and Greenoaks (7.1%).
