Navan Q3 Earnings Call Highlights

Navan (NASDAQ:NAVN) reported fiscal third-quarter 2026 results in its first earnings call as a public company, highlighting 29% year-over-year revenue growth, expanding profitability, and what executives described as accelerating enterprise momentum driven by product performance, industry consolidation, and AI capabilities.

Leadership update and public-company priorities

CEO and co-founder Ariel Cohen opened the call by reiterating the company’s mission “to make travel easy for every frequent traveler,” and said the IPO validated market confidence in Navan’s platform and strategy. Cohen also addressed the announced departure of CFO Amy Butte, who will leave the role on January 9. Cohen said Butte helped build out the finance organization and prepare Navan for the public markets, and that she will support a transition and remain a strategic advisor while the board searches for a successor.

Anne Giviskos, currently SVP of Strategic Finance and chief accounting officer, will serve as interim CFO, according to management.

Quarterly results: growth with operating leverage

Butte said Navan delivered “significant top-line growth while simultaneously improving our profitability profile,” while also emphasizing the company’s seasonality, with fiscal Q3 typically the strongest quarter.

• Revenue: $195 million, up 29% year over year. Usage revenue grew 29% and subscription revenue grew 26%.
• Gross booking volume (GBV): $2.62 billion, up 40% year over year.
• Usage yield: 6.9%, down from 7.5% in Q3 of fiscal 2025. Year-to-date usage yield was 7.1%.
• Non-GAAP gross margin: 74%, up about 200 basis points year over year and an all-time high, driven primarily by support automation and scale efficiencies.
• Non-GAAP operating margin: 13%, up 870 basis points year over year, which management attributed to gross margin gains and improved efficiency across sales and marketing, R&D, and G&A.
• Free cash flow: -$11 million, an improvement of 30% versus Q3 fiscal 2025.

Butte also reported that payment volume processed through Navan Cards was $1.13 billion, up 12% year over year. International revenue represented 37% of total Q3 revenue and 38% year-to-date.

Enterprise momentum, customer satisfaction, and platform differentiation

Management pointed to enterprise deal wins and launches, including signing what Cohen described as the second-largest European deal in company history with a CAC 40 customer, and closing deals with Frasers Group and Axel Springer. Cohen said Navan recently launched “major customers including Visa, Engie, and Fortune 500 healthcare companies.”

In response to questions about enterprise acceleration, Cohen attributed momentum to three factors:

• Happy customers acting as “ambassadors,” citing efficiency improvements and platform savings.
• Industry consolidation prompting companies to reevaluate legacy solutions, which he said favors Navan’s modern platform.
• AI initiatives in the enterprise increasing interest in Navan, which Cohen described as an AI leader in travel and expense.

Butte added that many enterprise deals are attaching multiple products at launch, and said the company is focused on shortening launch and ramp times. Cohen later clarified that when Navan says it “won an enterprise,” it refers to global adoption across the company, citing Engie as an example “for the entire 15,000 employees,” and making similar comments about Visa and other recent enterprise wins.

Navan also reported customer satisfaction metrics management highlighted as a differentiator: satisfaction reaching 97% and net promoter score rising to 45, compared with an industry average of five, according to Cohen.

AI, margins, and the road map: Cognition, Ava, and “Navan Edge”

Cohen and Butte repeatedly pointed to AI as both a product and financial lever. Cohen described Navan Cognition as the company’s “homegrown AI agentic framework designed specifically for travel,” built to avoid what he called limitations of generic large language models in high-stakes travel scenarios.

Management said Ava, Navan’s AI support agent powered by Cognition, now handles more than half of user interactions. Butte quantified that on the call, saying Navan is “deflecting 54% of customer support interactions” through Ava, and connected the automation to the company’s gross margin expansion. Cohen said Ava is performing with customer satisfaction “at human levels,” while later remarks referenced satisfaction around 80% for Ava-supported interactions.

The company also previewed an in-development initiative called Navan Edge, which Cohen described as an AI-powered booking experience aimed at “hyper-servicing” frequent travelers with AI augmented by human agents when needed. In response to an analyst question, Cohen said Edge is intended to “unlock more of the TAM,” particularly in “non-managed” travel, while keeping the same business model (booking fees and supplier/partner economics). Management said investments in Edge began in the second half of fiscal 2026, will continue in fiscal 2027, and are expected to contribute to top-line results more in fiscal 2028.

Outlook raised; seasonality and 2027 cash flow target

Butte said the company raised guidance for both fiscal Q4 and the full fiscal year 2026, while reiterating that fiscal Q4 is typically seasonally lower than Q3 in both volume and margins.

• Fiscal Q4 revenue: $161 million to $163 million (23% year-over-year growth at the midpoint).
• Fiscal Q4 non-GAAP loss from operations: $15.5 million to $14.5 million (non-GAAP operating margin of -9% at the midpoint).
• Full-year fiscal 2026 revenue: $685 million to $687 million (28% year-over-year growth at the midpoint).
• Full-year fiscal 2026 non-GAAP income from operations: $21 million to $22 million (non-GAAP operating margin of 3% at the midpoint).

Butte said Navan did not see an impact from travel disruptions related to a government shutdown, noting October was a record month. She said the company observed a “very minor” volume impact for about four days beginning November 11 following FAA flight cancellations, which was offset by higher airline ticket prices, resulting in no material net impact to Q4 outlook.

On capital structure, Butte said the IPO strengthened the balance sheet and streamlined the company’s cost of capital. Navan ended Q3 with $809 million in cash and cash equivalents and $207 million in debt. She also said the company expects to be free cash flow positive for the full fiscal year 2027.

About Navan (NASDAQ:NAVN)

Navan (NASDAQ: NAVN) is a technology company that provides an integrated platform for corporate travel, expense management and business payments. The company combines online travel booking and itinerary management with expense reporting, corporate card services and payment processing to help organizations consolidate travel and T&E (travel and expense) workflows into a single system. Navan emphasizes a mobile-first user experience, automated reconciliation and policy controls to simplify administrative processes for finance and travel teams while improving the experience for travelers.

Navan’s offerings typically include online and mobile travel booking, real-time traveler support and duty-of-care features, automated expense capture and reporting, corporate card and virtual card issuance, and tools for payments and invoice management.