Navan CEO Calls Amex GBT-SAP Concur Partnership ‘Antiquated’
Photo Credit: Navan CEO and co-founder Ariel Cohen (left) and Seth Borko in discussion at the Skift Global Forum in New York in 2023. Skift
Skift Take
Navan CEO Ariel Cohen dismissed the SAP Concur–Amex GBT deal as “antiquated” and "irrelevant." Has Navan truly built a more reliable, disruptive solution?
Navan CEO Ariel Cohen took a shot at the recently announced partnership between two corporate travel heavyweights, SAP Concur and American Express Global Business Travel.
Asked during Navan's earnings call Monday what he made of the SAP Concur–Amex GBT collaboration, Cohen said: “The old model of connecting, stitching together a lot of things, taking a booking tool like Concur, and then a travel agency and trying to connect them together, it’s so antiquated.”
He pointed to what he sees as that model’s shortcomings.
“You start to search for something in Concur, then you find yourself calling an agent," Cohen said. "In an era where people expect everything to be online, to see machine le
