• Expensify is teaming up with Spotana to launch Expensify Travel, a business travel booking platform based on Spotanas Travel-as-a-Service offering.
• The new travel service will offer Expensify’s business users access to global travel inventory, lower fares, and servicing.
• Expensify’s new launch makes it a direct competitor with California-based Navan, a corporate travel and expense management platform that launched in 2015.

Business expense management company Expensify announced the upcoming addition of a new set of capabilities today, which will make it a more robust platform to help businesses plan and manage their expenses. The company is launching Expensify Travel.

Expensify Travel will allow the company’s business users to access global travel inventory, lower fares, and servicing. Expensify Travel will be built on top of New York-based Spotana’s cloud-based Travel-as-a-Service platform, which will help clients manage flight changes, cancellations, and unused ticket credits, as well as offer comprehensive travel management capabilities.

“Book your trip in minutes, we’ll handle the rest. We’ve made it effortless for members to search and book flights, hotels, cars, and trains — all at the most competitive rates available,” said Expensify CEO David Barrett. “Our early release will let business travelers manage it all in one place, with real-time support, customizable rules, and the option to assign virtual travel cards to employees. We couldn’t be more excited for the future of Expensify Travel in partnership with Spotana.”

Expensify plans to have the early release of Expensify Travel next week, offering booking and management capabilities, as well as 24/7 Expensify support. In the future, the new travel offering will be directly integrated into New Expensify, the company’s new super app. When booking their travel in the new chat-based app, customers will be able to book and manage trips, manage travel expenses, chat with colleagues, and more. “Through our partnership, Expensify has created a one-stop shop for travel and expense management for their customers with a seamless user experience,” said Spotnana Founder and CEO Sarosh Waghmar.

Expensify’s new launch makes it a direct competitor with California-based Navan, a corporate travel and expense management platform. Formerly known as TripActions, Navan was founded in 2015 and offers expense management tools such as employee spending controls, automated expense management tools, reporting capabilities, and more.

There are key differences between Expensify’s and Navan’s expense management tools, however. While both companies allow clients to use their own existing corporate expense cards with their expense management tools, Expensify also offers users its own branded debit card. Also, Expensify’s interface is focused on being user friendly to serve small and medium sized businesses, while Navan offers features that are tailored to meet needs of a variety of sizes.

It is more difficult to assess the differences between the companies’ travel booking tools, given that Expensify’s tools have yet to launch. However, it appears that the two will differentiate themselves with tools that serve their individual target markets. For instance, Navan offers a high-touch, premium travel experience, the ability to book meetings and events, and consulting services aimed at larger, corporate clients. Expensify’s tools will likely root in the company’s user-friendly, simplified approach.

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• Expensify now enables business customers to reimburse international employees in multiple currencies.
• Expensify customers can send employee reimbursements in over 154 currencies and across 200+ countries.
• Today’s move also enables businesses to link withdrawal bank accounts in the U.K., Canada, Australia, and the European Union.

Business expense management firm Expensify made a move this week to support businesses operating in the global economy. The San Francisco-based company now enables its business customers to reimburse their employees across borders in multiple currencies.

Using the Expensify app, customers can send employee reimbursements in over 154 currencies and across 200+ countries. The international reimbursement process doesn’t require businesses to pre-fund payment. Rather, businesses can pay employees at any time by linking their local bank account.

“Employees can work from anywhere these days and expect to be reimbursed quickly for out-of-pocket expenses regardless of where they live,” said Expensify Founder and CEO David Barrett. “We have listened to these customers and now include global reimbursements for free in all paid Expensify plans.”

Additionally, Expensify is taking another step to support international businesses. The company now enables businesses to link withdrawal bank accounts in the U.K., Canada, Australia, and the European Union.

If you’re familiar with Expensify’s company culture, the only surprising aspect about this move is that the company didn’t launch it sooner. Even pre-pandemic, Expensify was known for its flexible working policy, taking its entire workforce to fun, overseas locations to work for a month. “The entire team goes on a month-long Offshore to a new country every year,” the company’s website states. “We start out the trip in hostels and Airbnbs, and then for our final week together, we re-locate to the most amazing or unique accommodation we can find!”

Expensify went public in 2021 and now trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker EXFY. The company launched expense reporting in 2008, and has since grown to add billpay, a travel concierge, a corporate payment card, and– as of last month– a co-working space as a perk for its business clients.

The business expense management space has become increasingly crowded in recent years, having seen competition from the likes of Brex, Ramp, Divvy, PayEm, Bento for Business, and more. According to Grand View Research, the market size for global spend management platforms was valued at $15.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a rate of 10.3% from 2022 to 2030.