They say history rhymes but doesn’t repeat, and in markets, it helps to at least know the tune sung before.
Navan, the corporate travel and expense-management platform formerly known as TripActions, is preparing to go public this week.
At IPO Prophet, we rely on analogues—historical comparisons of comparable offerings—as a way to ground expectations.
Here, we turn to three instructive examples—Coupa (COUP), Sabre (SABR), and Expensify (EXFY)—to set a frame of reference for Navan’s debut.
Navan’s platform bridges corporate travel booking, expense management, and card-based spend controls, positioning it squarely at the intersection of enterprise SaaS and fintech infrastructure.
The company effectively merges the travel-logistics backbone of Amex GBT, the workflow automation of Expensify, and the analytical discipline of Coupa.
Its anticipated offering—projected in the $500 million – $1 billion range—places it among the larger mid-cap SaaS listings of the past decade.
The table below provides historical context for the most relevant comparables.
| Company | Ticker | Offer Date | Offer Price ($) | Shares Offered (M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sabre Corporation | SABR | Apr 17 2014 | 16.00 | 39.2 |
| Expensify, Inc. | EXFY | Nov 10 2021 | 27.00 | 9.73 |
| Coupa Software Inc. | COUP | Oct 6 2016 | 18.00 | 7.4 |
| Amex Global Business Travel | GBTG | May 31 2022 – via SPAC merger | — | — |
Note: Amex GBT went public through a SPAC combination with Apollo Strategic Growth Capital rather than a traditional book-build IPO.
Because the listing mechanics and float dynamics differ, it is not included in the analogue performance plots that follow.
Sabre (NASDAQ:SABR) — the legacy infrastructure powering airline and corporate-travel bookings; its IPO captured investor enthusiasm for scaled distribution networks but also revealed how cyclical exposure can suppress margins.
Expensify (NASDAQ:EXFY) — a lightweight expense-reporting and corporate-card automation platform; its 2021 debut reflected late-cycle SaaS exuberance and the subsequent reset in valuation.
Coupa Software (NASDAQ:COUP) — the enterprise-grade spend-management suite that became the sector benchmark before being taken private in 2023; its trajectory illustrates how deep integration and analytics can command durable multiples.
Together, these names capture the range of DNA within Navan’s model—SABR’s travel plumbing, EXFY’s workflow simplicity, and COUP’s enterprise discipline.
Each represents a different verse in the same song: technology’s attempt to tame the friction of corporate spend.
The first plot tracks normalized performance during each company’s opening trading session.
Across all three, the melody is familiar: a burst of early enthusiasm—sharp gains off the open—followed by a quick fade as liquidity deepens and allocations clear.
Across the set, five sell-signal events appear, marking frequent momentum reversals within hours of listing.
In other words, while the crowd tends to join the chorus early, the refrain cools quickly.
Travel- and spend-oriented SaaS issuers have historically peaked in the first session and drifted back toward their offer levels as the initial volume subsides.
The second plot extends through roughly 120 trading days after each IPO.
Here the voices diverge:
Coupa held its tone, building steadily above its debut before settling roughly 20–25 percent higher—a case study in sustained institutional sponsorship.
Sabre oscillated early, then softened into a gradual downtrend, reflecting both leverage and cyclical travel exposure.
Expensify began in harmony but drifted steadily lower, closing the period at less than half its initial base—an illustration of valuation compression in smaller SaaS names.
Across the ensemble, the refrain repeats: early optimism, fading momentum, eventual separation by quality.
Momentum tends to normalize once the narrative gives way to execution metrics.
History shows that IPOs spanning corporate travel and financial automation often open to a strong tempo but struggle to sustain the beat.
The SABR–EXFY–COUP analogue set suggests that the market’s initial enthusiasm typically moderates as fundamentals take center stage.
For Navan, the question is which note it will strike—Coupa’s sustained harmony, or the faster-fading verses sung by Sabre and Expensify.
Either way, the tune is familiar, and the charts below remind us: in the IPO market, even when history doesn’t repeat, it often hums the same melody.