Latest news with #Navan
Skift
4 hours ago
- Business
- Skift
Ramp Raises $200 Million for Expense and Biz Travel Management: Startup Funding Roundup
Startups for business travel management and flying taxis are still raising a lot of money. Travel Startup Funding This Week Each week we round up jd@ if you have funding news. Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding . Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes atif you have funding news. There's a lot of money going into tech platforms to manage business travel and expenses. The most recent is Ramp, which raised $200 million this week. It comes months after TravelPerk raised $200 million, with multiple other companies raising smaller rounds. Also this week: Navan, a corporate travel agency, has taken a step toward becoming a public company. And flying taxi companies — most recently Archer Aviation — have been raising billions of dollars in their race to operate commercially. Between Ramp, Archer Aviation, and a small startup, travel companies raised over $1 billion in the past week. Ramp: $200 Million Ramp, an expense management platform with travel booking capabilities, has raised $200 million in series E funding. The latest funding values the company at $16 billion, a jump from $13 billion since its previous fundraise in March and $7.65 billion since its series D extension in 2024. Founders Fund led the round for the fifth time. Other investors included Thrive Capital, D1 Capital Partners, General Catalyst, GIC, ICONIQ Growth, Khosla Ventures, Sands Capital, 8VC, Lux Capital, Stripes, 137 Ventures, Avenir Growth, and Definition Capital. Ramp said it has now raised a total of $1.4 billion in equity financing. The New York City-based company started with a focus on corporate cards and helping clients manage receipts, but it's been building out tech since 2022 to help client companies book and manage travel. The company's Ramp Travel product allows clients' employees to book travel with inventory from Priceline. The platform also has integrations with TravelPerk, Lyft and Uber for Business. Ramp automatically collects receipts from any bookings with partners, removing the need to submit expenses. Client companies can set travel policies and manage approvals through the platform. Ramp last month released a feature that automatically rebooks a hotel if the price drops. It's one of 270 features that the company has released this year, which the company said were all developed with the help of AI. Ramp said it has more than 40,000 companies, including CBRE, Shopify, Anduril, Notion, Cursor, Vercel, and Barry's. The company said its platform handles $80 billion in purchases annually. Ramp said the funding will go toward improving the AI-powered product and expanding business, particularly in the U.S. Archer Aviation: $850 Million Archer Aviation, which is developing a flying taxi for urban use, has raised $850 million. The funding comes from a direct offering of 85 million shares of stock for $10 per share. The company had previously raised nearly $2 billion, including $430 million last year. California-based Archer is developing an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft called Midnight. It is designed to hold a pilot with four passengers and luggage for urban trips of 20-50 miles at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. It is powered by six independent battery packs, each supporting a pair of electric engines. The company is also developing aircraft for the U.S. military. Archer said in May that it plans to provide air taxi services for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and for Team USA. The company last year unveiled plans for an air taxi network in Los Angeles. The network includes vertiports (eVTOL airports) at Los Angeles International Airport, University of Southern California, Orange County, Santa Monica, Hollywood Burbank, Long Beach, and the Van Nuys neighborhood. The company is also planning to establish a vertiport near the SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles football teams Rams and Chargers. The plan is to begin LA network operations in 2026. This is in addition to plans for a network at California airports where Southwest Airlines operates, along with five vertiports in the Bay Area. Travlounge: $2.9 Million Travlounge, which designs roadside rest stops with sleeping pods, has raised $2.9 million (250 million Indian rupees). The funding comes from Gokulam Group. India-based Travlounge says its facilities include tech-enabled sleeping pods, washrooms, cafes, travel-focused markets, and charging stations for electric vehicles. The company has also released an app for trip planning. The funding will go toward expanding beyond its first two locations in India.
Skift
9 hours ago
- Business
- Skift
Navan Moves Toward IPO With Confidential SEC Filing
Navan's first move toward an IPO has been a long time coming. Navan, a business travel tech company, said Friday it has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed IPO – but it was a "confidential" submission and no financial details were publicly available. 'The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined,' the company said. The company was last valued at $9.2 billion during its series G venture capital raise in October 2022, a time when many private valuations were considered inflated. The IPO market has been unusually slow, but analysts believe that several offerings in recents weeks signal that the market is heating up. Navan is a corporate travel agency with a tech platform where employees at client companies can complete bookings and manage expenses. Clients include Lyft, Wayfair, Toast, Thomson Reuters, Zoom, Shopify, and more. Navan CEO Ariel Cohen in May 2024 said the company was "not far" from an IPO, though he noted the timing could be affected by market conditions and geopolitical factors outside the company's control. The company has hired two execs with IPO experience over the past year. Amy Butte joined Navan as chief financial officer last June, and was previously CFO at the New York Stock Exchange during its IPO. Rich Liu, an early chief revenue officer for Navan, returned to the company as CEO of Navan Travel. Liu previously helped two companies go public. Cohen and CTO Ilan Twig founded Navan in 2015. The company now has more than 3,000 employees and more than 10,000 clients, according to its website. The company has raised well over $1 billion in venture capital. Business travel tech platforms have been gaining traction as companies have been looking to streamline various operations post-pandemic. TravelPerk has raised over $700 million, most recently $200 million in January. Expense management platform Ramp has raised over $2 billion, with reports that it's seeking more funding at a valuation of $16 billion. Several others have been raising money to target their respective geographic regions.
CNA
9 hours ago
- Business
- CNA
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.
Reuters
10 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Travel tech firm Navan confidentially files to go public in US
June 20 (Reuters) - U.S. corporate travel and expense company Navan on Friday disclosed it had confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, as investor optimism for new listings grow. The terms of the offering were not disclosed. Activity in the U.S. IPO market, which started the year on a slower footing, has shown signs of a sustained revival after a couple of fresh flotations received overwhelming investor support. 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 (AXP.N), opens new tab and SAP Concur.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Travel tech firm Navan confidentially files to go public in US
(Reuters) -U.S. corporate travel and expense company Navan on Friday disclosed it had confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, as investor optimism for new listings grow. The terms of the offering were not disclosed. Activity in the U.S. IPO market, which started the year on a slower footing, has shown signs of a sustained revival after a couple of fresh flotations received overwhelming investor support. 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. Sign in to access your portfolio
