Episode summary
Navan's AI Travel-Booking Tools Displace Legacy Providers | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec · Guests: Ariel Cohen
Summary
Navan’s Ariel Cohen argued that the company is gaining corporate customers because its AI-driven travel and expense platform is easier to use, more personalized, and cheaper for employers. He said the company grew net new customers by 50% in Q4, and that companies ranging from Unilever to Netflix are using Navan across booking, expense management, and corporate cards. He also said the platform’s personalization and reward system can help drive about 15% savings across customers’ travel budgets.
Cohen said Navan’s advantage is not just incentives but the depth of data behind its recommendations: the company knows traveler preferences, office locations, and patterns from years of usage, which lets it book trips in about seven minutes and make changes quickly when plans are disrupted. He framed the business as one that combines AI agents and human agents, with usage-based economics that fit the way travel services have long been sold.
On demand, Cohen said business travel looked resilient despite war in the Middle East, storms, and TSA disruptions. He said Navan saw no spike in cancellations and instead saw record bookings in Q1, while the company’s own data suggested the news coverage around airport disruptions overstated the practical impact on travelers.
Key takeaways
- Ariel Cohen said Navan grew net new customers by 50% in Q4, showing continued adoption despite volatility in the stock.
- He said Navan’s AI personalization can cut travel budgets by 15% across customers.
- Cohen said business travel remained resilient through war, storms, and TSA disruptions, with no spike in cancellations and record bookings in Q1.
- He said Navan’s edge comes from long-term traveler data, not just incentives, letting it book trips in about seven minutes and change them quickly.
- Cohen said the company’s revenue mix is mainly usage-based, which he thinks fits the economics of AI and travel services.
Notable quotes
“We reported the quarter but the really think the important thing that we said there that we are growing our net new business”
“So we said that we signed we grew net new customers by 50%. In Q4”
“and in total in across all of our customers, they're actually saving 15% of the entire budget”
“it takes in average seven minutes to book your entire business trip through us and these trips are complex”
“we saw a records of bookings. Uh so it actually tells us that business travel is fairly resilient”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news.
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio. Shares of Non surged more than 43% on March 26. It was the day that the company uh a day after the business travel platform reported fourth quarter results that beat expectations.
They gave an outlook that analysts saw as both positive but also conservative. Shares also rose as much as 11% yesterday before they pulled back. They closed higher by 4%.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley said the business travel platform is their top pick. And as Delta Air Management sees demand for travel growing through the year. Ariel Cohen is the CEO and co-founder of Nan.
He's back with us. It handles travel, corporate cards, expense management, and more for companies. Uh they IPOed back in October.
They've got a market cap around $3.1 billion. Shares down just about 28% so far this year.
Yeah. about 18% of the uh float is short, which we like to just remind uh everyone. Earl Cohen is with us.
He is the CEO and co-founder of Navan. Um and he's here in studio. So, I want to just go there because it's one metric of a business, but um before we got going, we were talking about we've seen a lot of volatility in your shares.
That's a pretty negative tone though, the percentage of the float that is short. What do you hear from investors and um institutional or otherwise about what's going on and what do they want to know?
Yeah, you know, first of all, happy to be here again. It's always — Sorry to come out of that coming out. — It's good. And I think you know share price go up and down.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai travel booking
- corporate travel budgets
- business travel uncertainty
- travel industry disruption
- free cash flow growth
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Navan
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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