Navan plows ahead with IPO during shutdown, aims for $6.45B valuation 

Corporate travel management company Navan — once known as TripActions — filed updated IPO documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, even though the federal government is currently shut down.  

Navan is proceeding under new SEC rules that allows wanna-be public companies that are in limbo during the shutdown to file updated information, including share count and pricing, and have their statements automatically okayed in 20 days without staff scrutiny. Once the filings are declared effective, Navan can kick off its roadshow. The rule, however, doesn’t mean that staff can’t ask questions or require amended filings later. 

Navan declined to comment to TechCrunch about its updated IPO documents.

The going thought was that the shutdown would cool and possibly freeze an IPO market that had just started to thaw. Even with this rule, many companies would rather get a green light from a staffer than go it alone, sources told Bloomberg. So the tech world will be watching how Navan’s gambit fairs. 

Navan’s updated filing shows the company plans to sell 30 million shares, with insiders selling an additional 7 million. It priced its range at $24 to $26. At the high-end, the company would raise more than $960 million and be valued at $6.45 billion. Navan is backed by Lightspeed, Andreessen Horowitz, Zeev Ventures, and Greenoaks.

Navan generated rolling 12-month revenue of $613 million (up 32%), with losses of $188 million, according to the updated filing.