Travel tech firm Navan confidentially files for US IPO
Corporate travel and expense company Navan said on Friday it had confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, as it looks to take advantage of growing investor optimism for new listings after a dry spell.
The terms of the offering were not disclosed.
The Palo Alto, California-based company, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed among others, raised $304 million in equity and structured debt financing in 2022 and was valued at $9.2 billion at the time, according to the company.
Activity in the U.S. IPO market, which started the year on a slower footing, has shown signs of a sustained revival in recent weeks after a couple of fresh flotations received overwhelming investor support.
The technology sector has been dominating the U.S. IPO headlines in the recent revival along with finance, with companies such as space and defence tech firm Voyager Technologies and adtech MNTN making stellar debuts.
Chime Financial's shares also surged in one of the most hotly anticipated New York debuts of the month, paving the path for public offerings of a few big names like crypto exchange Gemini and fintech firm Klarna later in the year.
"We do see the IPO pipeline building, and forecast an active fall (season)," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs.
"In addition to the core institutional IPO buyers, who are looking for strong growth, profitability, and reasonable valuations, it's healthy to see traders looking to get in on a hot deal," Kennedy added.
Navan, founded in 2015 as TripActions, began as a corporate travel management platform aiming to streamline services offered by traditional players such as American Express and SAP Concur. It later expanded into corporate payments and expense management.
Its clients include Zoom Communicationsand Lyft, according to Navan's website.
