Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios
Navan, formerly known as TripActions, on Monday launched an expense management offering that works with a company's existing Mastercard or Visa corporate card.
Why it matters: The development heats up competition in the already hot corporate card space and shakes up the conventional expense management business model.
- The move also is intended to expand Navan's customer base to those preferring to retain their banking relationships, which tend to be larger businesses.
Context: Expense management startups like Brex and Ramp make a significant amount — if not most — of their money through interchange fees that come with offering their own corporate cards.
- Navan's new product would take none of that fee, instead earning revenue from selling software.
Driving the news: Navan's offering enables customers to link an existing corporate card to the company's software.
- As with its branded card, transactions would automatically show up in the expense management system and be checked against company policy.
- In theory, that means Navan could also take on Brex or Ramp customers that wish to continue using their cards but switch to Navan's software.
Of note: Older expense management players such as Concur and Expensify already allow customers to integrate their own corporate cards.
- Navan contends its software and integration are faster and superior.
The bigger picture: For Navan, interchange fees have been a small part of its revenue, according to the company's head of expense Michael Sindicich.
- Its travel business, which finds flights and hotels for customers, remains its largest moneymaker.
