Palo Alto-based TripAction, led by co-founders Ilan Twig, left, and Ariel Cohen, has changed its name to Navan.
YouTube screen capture
TripActions Inc. has a new name and an upgraded app and has joined the ChatGPT bandwagon.
The Palo Alto-based provider of corporate travel and expense management services has renamed itself Navan Inc. The moniker is a mashup of the words navigate and avant — French for forward.
In addition to its new name, Navan has consolidated all of its travel and expense offerings onto what it calls a "super app," it said in an announcement Tuesday. Its clients' business
travelers can access its entire offerings in the app using their associated company email addresses.
On top of that, Navan has connected its virtual travel assistant, Ava., to ChatGPT, OpenAI LLC's artificial intelligence software. The travel company has long used AI to automate and optimize some of its operations and to help provide customer support, Chief Technology Officer Ilan Twig said in the announcement.
"Since we already had that infrastructure, incorporating OpenAI ... was a natural next step," Twig said.
The rebranding comes after after the company lined up a $400 million credit line and more than $300 million in debt and equity funding in the fourth quarter. Those deals followed reports it was gearing up for an initial public offering in the first half of this year. It has yet to publicly unveil such a plan.
Here's more Bay Area venture and startup news at midweek:
Fundings
- InfluxData Inc., San Francisco, $51 million: Princeville Capital and Citi Ventures led the Series E round for this provider of software used to manage and analyze data in real time. Battery Ventures, Mayfield Fund, Sapphire Ventures and others also invested.
- Light Field Lab Inc., San Jose, $50 million: Corning Inc., Gates Frontier, LG Tech Ventures, NCSoft Corp., Otoy Inc., Khosla Ventures, Taiwania Capital and the venture capital arms of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Verizon Communications Inc., Robert Bosch GmbH, Liberty Global plc and Faurecia SA (dba Forvia) invested in the Series B round for this developer of holographic display technology.
- Acceldata Inc., Campbell, $50 million: March Capital led the Series C round for this provider of software that helps companies manage their use of data services. Industry Ventures, Sanabil Investments and Insight Partners also participated.
- Ushur Inc., Santa Clara, $50 million: Third Point Ventures led the Series C round for this provider of software used to automate customer service interactions. Iron Pillar, 8VC, Aflac Ventures and Pentland Ventures also invested.
- Hello Therma Inc. (dba Therma), San Francisco, $19 million: Zero Infinity Partners led the Series A round for this provider of software that monitors and automatically adjusts the energy consumption of corporate air conditioning and food refrigeration systems. Deciens Capital, CityRock Venture Partners, Homecoming Capital, Ananta Capital, Kindergarten Ventures, Collaborative Fund and Govtech Fund also participated.
- Liminal Insights Inc., Emeryville, $17.5 million: ArcTern Ventures led the Series A round for provider of an ultrasound-based quality-control service for electric vehicle battery manufacturing. Northvolt AB, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Chrysalix VC, Good Growth Capital, University of Tokyo Edge Capital, Volta Energy Technologies, Impact Science Ventures and Helios Climate Ventures also invested.
- MindsDB Inc., San Jose, $16.5 million: Benchmark led the Series A round for this provider of software used to create machine learning models.
- Moderne Inc., San Francisco, $15 million: Intel Capital led the Series A round for this provider of software that helps developers automatically update their code. True Ventures, Mango Capital and Allstate Strategic Ventures also participated.
- Car IQ Inc., San Francisco, $15 million: Forte Ventures led the extension of a Series B round for this provider of a payments and expense monitoring service for operators of vehicle fleets. Visa Inc., Bridgestone Corp., Navistar Inc., Circle K Stores Inc., State Farm Ventures, Telus Ventures and Avanta Ventures also invested.
- Samooha Inc., San Francisco, $12.5 million: Altimeter Capital led the Series A round for this provider of a service that helps companies link their data to data analysis software. Snowflake Ventures also participated.
- Udon Labs Inc. (dba Follow), San Francisco, $9 million: Atomic, Uncork Capital and Vera Equity invested in the seed deal for this provider of a service that offers everyday investors advice from investment professionals and allows them to track the professionals' market moves.
- Simple HealthKit Inc., Fremont, $8 million: Initialized Capital led the Series A round for this provider of at-home medical tests. Kleiner Perkins, Kapor Capital and Quest Venture Partners also participated.
- Rembrand Inc., Los Altos, $8 million: Greycroft and UTA.VC led the seed round for this provider of a service that places ads in content creator and influencer videos.
- VeeDNA Inc. (dba Lineaje), Saratoga, $7 million: Tenable Ventures led the seed round for this provider of a service that helps companies analyze their software code for security vulnerabilities and other problems. Dreamit Ventures, Veear Capital and Belltower Fund Group also invested.
- Ever Careers Inc. (dba Moonhub), San Francisco, $4.4 million: Khosla Ventures and GV co-led the seed round for this provider of a recruitment service. AIX Venture and Day One Ventures also participated.
- Mission East Inc. (dba Frond), San Francisco, $3.3 million: Cherry Ventures led the seed round for this provider of chat and communications software. Icehouse Ventures, Script Capital, Tiny.VC and WndrCo also invested.
- Beaming Health Inc., San Francisco, $1.7 million: NextGen Venture Partners led the seed round for this provider of a website that connects neurodiverse individuals and their caregivers with providers of various therapeutic and clinical services. Tau Ventures, Divergent Investments, Designer Fund and MedMountain Ventures also participated.
IPOs
- Nextracker Inc. has moved up its initial public offering by one day. The Fremont company is now expected to price its IPO Wednesday and have its shares begin trading Thursday. Nextracker, which offers sun tracking systems for solar power arrays, plans to raise as much as $610 million in its offering and to list its stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol NXT.
- Hesai Group plans to price its IPO on Wednesday and start trading Thursday. The Chinese company, whose lone U.S. office is in Palo Alto, plans to raise as much as $197 million by selling 9 million American Depositary Shares for between $17 and $19 each. The lidar sensor maker, which is setting aside 1.35 million shares for its underwriters, plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol HSAI.
M&A
- International Business Machines Corp. acquired StepZen Inc. IBM didn't disclose the financial terms of the deal. StepZen is a provider of a service that helps developers add GraphQL — graphic query language — to their databases. The San Jose company had raised a total of $8 million in venture funding, according to PitchBook Data. IBM is a New York-based technology and consulting company.
- Quanergy Systems Inc. received approval in federal bankruptcy court on Friday to sell substantially all of its assets for about $3.1 million to Rolisi LLC. The sale was approved about two months after the Sunnyvale-based lidar sensor maker filed for bankruptcy protection.
- Velodyne Lidar Inc. rescheduled a shareholder vote on its plans to merge with Ouster Inc. The move comes after it failed to get a quorum for at its investor meeting last Friday. The new meeting is scheduled for this coming Friday at 9 a.m.
Funders in the news
- General Catalyst named Marc Bhargava as a managing director. Before joining the San Francisco venture firm, Bhargava worked in business operations and strategy at Coinbase Global Inc.
- Base10 hired Caroline Broder as a principal. The San Francisco venture firm also promoted Rexhi Dollaku to general partner.
- San Francisco Equity Partners added Hywel Robinson as a principal. Before joining the private equity firm, Robinson was a principal at Paine Schwartz Partners.
