Navan IPO tumbles 20% after historic debut under SEC shutdown workaround

Navan, the corporate travel and expense platform, finished its first day of trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday down 20% from its $25 IPO price, resulting in a valuation of approximately $4.7 billion for the 10-year-old company.

The company was the first to use a new SEC rule that allows public listings during a government shutdown.

Unlike the traditional IPO path, which requires SEC regulators to review and grant final approval, companies using the shutdown workaround can get automatic approval for their IPO documents 20 days after submitting their price range, effectively bypassing the need for manual SEC approval.

But the updated mechanism carries a risk: The government can scrutinize the documents later. If the SEC later finds material deficiencies or undisclosed issues, the company may be forced to amend its statements, which could lead to a lower stock price and even potential litigation.

Despite this risk, Navan decided to proceed with its IPO, primarily because the bulk of its registration statements had already been reviewed by the 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’s reaction to Navan’s offering is being closely monitored by other IPO contenders. Startups looking to go public before the end of the year need to decide soon whether they’re ready to deal with the regulatory unknowns or delay their filing until the next year.

Navan has been waiting to go public for several years. The company reportedly filed its confidential IPO paperwork in 2022 and planned to debut at 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 customers include Shopify, Zoom, Wayfair, OpenAI, and Thomson Reuters. The company claims that its AI-powered assistant, Ava, handles approximately 50% of customer conversations related to booking or changing flight, hotel, and car rental reservations. Navan’s expense management solution helps companies manage employee expenses through features like automated receipt scanning and categorization.

The company generated revenue of $613 million over the last 12 months (up 32%), with losses of $188 million, according to its S1.

Navan’s largest venture capital backers before its IPO included Lightspeed (holding a 24.8% stake), solo VC Oren Zeev (18.6% stake), Andreessen Horowitz (12.6%), and Greenoaks (7.1%).