The Conversation - November 2025

Welcome to BTN's monthly roundup of business travel and distribution and technology topics as shared on social media channels. In recent weeks, industry insiders discussed Navan's IPO, TravelPerk's new name and an air "profile-to-order" approach. 

Navan IPO: Boom or Bust?

At the end of October, Navan made its long-awaited debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, commencing trading as a public company. With industry analysts saying its performance will be a bellwether for the future appetite of investors in corporate travel technology, it wasn't just Navan's leaders and investors offering well wishes for the debut. Some competitors in the corporate travel technology space did as well. 

Engine founder and CEO Elia Wallen noted on LinkedIn that Navan's initial public offering was "the first IPO in corporate travel tech in nearly 25 years, and it's a validation of a space that's been long overdue for innovation. It also shows that investors and the market see the potential we've believe[d] in from the start. … Today is a win for the industry and a signal of what's ahead. The opportunity is massive, and we're excited to keep building." 

Mesh CEO and co-founder Oded Zehavi struck a similar tone, congratulating Navan on "an incredible milestone that highlights the growing strength, maturing and innovation within the travel and expense industry. This moment puts a well-deserved spotlight on the progress happening across the ecosystem. It validates what forward-thinking companies already know: Employees expect consumer-grade experiences, and enterprises need smarter, more connected ways to manage spend and travel."  

Customers weighed in as well, including recent global travel and expense manager for FLYR Seyad Ashraf. "It's been inspiring to watch Navan grow and shape the T&E space, and yesterday's IPO [marked] another major milestone in that journey," he said on LinkedIn.

"In my most recent role, I had the opportunity to lead our global implementation of Navan, and what impressed me most was how the platform delivered both an intuitive traveler experience and seamless integration across Finance and HR systems."

"That balance between user adoption, automation, and compliance is what defines an effective T&E program," he also said. 

IPO Prophet co-founder Scott Shelton, however, expressed disappointment with the opening day performance.

"Navan’s IPO followed the same pattern we highlighted earlier this week—soft open, brief rally, and fade," he said in an analysis posted to LinkedIn. "Volume throughout the day was tepid—turnover registered at just 44 percent, placing Navan in the lower third of recent IPOs and consistent with weak open-to-close performers." 

TravelPerk Drops the 'Travel' From Its Name

TravelPerk this month shortened its name to just "Perk." The move meant to reflect its capabilities to help employees with tasks beyond travel booking, including filing expense, coding invoices and getting approvals. 

As CEO and founder Avi Meir explained it on LinkedIn, "Ten years ago, we set out to fix business travel. It turns out the same problems we solved there exist everywhere: the small, annoying tasks like filing expenses, chasing trip approvals or managing invoices."

"These tasks slow people down and steal focus from their actual work."

"So, yeah, we're fixing that too. Bigger mission. Bigger ambition," he continued.

Amadeus head of global brand Paul Burke replied that it was "great to see a brand change that doesn't throw out the baby with the bathwater."

Hockeystack senior engineering leader James Hong put Perk in some lofty company. "Snoop Doggy Dogg → Snoop Dogg. The Facebook → Facebook. Dunkin’ Donuts → Dunkin’," he wrote.

Some, however, questioned the wisdom of dropping travel from the name.

AllFly co-founder and COO Kenny Totten in a LinkedIn comment called it a "weird move." 

"Navan drops TripActions. Perk drops (Travel). At AllFly, what options do we have? Do we become All or Fly?" he wrote.  

In addition, he wondered if it was "an effort to have to be valued at the same revenue multiple as Amex GBT in public markets?" 

Should Airlines Consider 'Profile-to-Order?'

Travlr ID recently launched a new research and innovation division, Futures Lab, and the division's first publication called for airlines to take a "profile-to-order" approach as they revolutionize shopping.

That would mean an airline would know who was shopping and what their intent was, to determine how best to respond. 

Travlr ID founder and CEO Gee Mann described it on LinkedIn as "a way to align identity, intent and consent before computation begins," he said.

"Behind every flight search, behind every 'find me a trip' prompt, there's a staggering amount of invisible computation." 

"[The International Air Transport Association] estimates that over 80 percent of airline offers are never seen by a traveler."

"Billions of requests are generated daily by bots, reshopping tools and AI assistants—burning compute, energy and cost, but creating no value," he continued. 

TClara industry advisor Scott Gillespie responded that the concept was brilliant.

"Love the economic triaging it does for the shopping and booking phases of travel," he said. 

Agentic systems co-founder Axel Schmiegelow also found the concept intriguing. "At Agentic Systems, we are building agentic transactions infrastructure for travel bookings," he said in a reply to Mann's post. 

"We'd love to discuss how we could incorporate what you are doing for our clients," he also said.