Congratulations, Navan!

Congratulations to the whole team at Navan on your IPO!

It’s been a journey for us too - no pun intended. Back in 2016, Creandum backed a group of 4 founders -  Michael Riegel, Jannick Wässa, Slobodan Utvic, and Marko Schilde - who were building a travel tech start-up in Berlin called Comtravo. Even back then, Comtravo were already pushing ahead with AI, using it to manage and simplify booking and travel arrangements for small to medium sized enterprises across the DACH region and into Scandinavia.

Comtravo emerged at a time when business travel still relied on manual handling and slow response loops. The founders saw this operational gap: thousands of companies spending hours and hours of valuable attention on tasks that could be automated with AI and structured workflows. They built the full stack; software that obfuscated away the complexity of travel bookings through a clean, simple UI for users. 

This success did not go unnoticed, and as the market matured and Comtravo continued to excel, they were acquired by TripActions in 2022, to help accelerate their expansion into Europe, and for their AI expertise. During this time, Michael stepped in to lead Europe as EU CEO, expanding TripAction’s European footprint and translating Comtravo’s operating rigor on a global scale. Jannick remained central to pushing the product vision forward, and Stephan Tingler, who led M&A, continued to drive further successful strategic acquisitions from within TripActions, extending Comtravo’s original playbook of disciplined expansion. TripActions rebranded to Navan in 2023, and the merger delivered what it was designed to: a unified platform, an accelerated European presence, and a leadership bench shaped by Comtravo’s DNA. 

This moment belongs to the whole Navan team, and is testament to Ariel and Ilan leadership of the company. But we will also take a moment to say congratulations to the Comtravo team who saw this future way back in 2016,  when this outcome was far, far from certain. What began as a focused Berlin team solving specific travel pain points contributes to a global platform operating with scale, transparency, and financial rigor. They turned an idea into a functioning engine, and now into a public company.

Congratulations, we’re excited to see what comes next!