Navan is an all-in-one platform designed to streamline corporate travel and expense management. It offers businesses a unified solution to book travel, manage expenses, and enforce policy compliance, all within a single, user-friendly interface. Navan platform ensures that all bookings and expenses adhere to company policies, with real-time compliance checks and automated approval workflows.
As Navan expanded into India, it faced several challenges, including limited direct booking providers, gaps in local hotel content, and restrictions with global payment gateways in supporting India-specific platforms. The Indian market operates very differently from global markets, requiring tailored solutions.
Navan relied on Travelfusion to access India flight content and select global low cost carriers (LCCs) such as Indigo, AirAsia, Air India, SpiceJet, and Vistara.
However, this integration came with higher transaction fees for each booking. Additionally, the booking success rate was only around 80%, with frequent, unpredictable errors impacting the overall customer experience.
As a global company, Navan’s primary payment integration was with Stripe.
While effective in most regions, Stripe posed challenges in India due to regulatory and operational requirements. Key flows such as AMEX BTA card support and MOTO (OTP less) transactions were not available, creating friction for Indian customers jdvbdsjbvb vdsbvdjsb.
Navan had direct integrations with major global distribution systems (GDS) such as Sabre, Amadeus, and Katanox, covering roughly 80% of hotels worldwide.
However, many Indian hotels are not listed on these GDS platforms. As a result, Navan’s clients in India often faced limited options when booking hotels through the Navan platform.
Navan charged a transaction fee on every booking, and since these were billed in India, GST was collected on each fee.
However, the platform lacked a system to properly handle GST invoicing, preventing customers from claiming input tax credit a significant drawback for corporate clients.
Over the past two years, we delivered multiple solutions in phased releases, continuously monitoring performance and making iterative improvements to ensure defined metrics were achieved.
To reduce transaction fees and improve booking success rates, we built a direct integration framework with LCC providers, most of whom use the Navitaire platform.
A reusable framework was developed to support both SOAP and REST integrations, enabling faster onboarding of any new LCC partner in the future.
We integrated with HDFC’s MOTO flow API, enabling card storage with a one time OTP and seamless OTP less subsequent transactions.
A retry mechanism and batch mode processing were implemented to further improve payment success rates.
To address gaps in local hotel availability, we integrated MakeMyTrip’s APIs across search-to-book workflows. A periodic sync was implemented to download and deduplicate hotel data with Navan’s existing catalogue.
Wallet based payments were introduced to support MakeMyTrip transactions, along with “Pay Now” and “Pay Later” options for greater customer flexibility.
We integrated with OneSource to handle GST calculations on transaction fees, with a fallback system to ensure resilience. A new invoice format was introduced to clearly display IGST, CGST, and SGST breakdowns.
Logic was implemented to apply the correct GST numbers per line of business (flights, hotels, and others), ensuring compliance across all transactions.
Eliminated dependency on high-cost intermediaries by integrating directly with LCCs. Reduced transaction fees while earning commissions on bookings. Increased booking success rate to 92%. Eliminated dependency on high-cost intermediaries by integrating directly with LCCs. Reduced transaction fees while earning commissions on bookings. Increased booking success rate to 92%.
Enabled support for AMEX BTA and MOTO flow, unlocking larger enterprise clients. Achieved 92% payment success rate via HDFC integration. Expanded hotel coverage in India to 95% through MakeMyTrip integration.
Shifted all Indian operations under a local entity with compliant GST invoicing. Processed 100% of transaction fee invoices through HDFC payment gateway. Reduced GST-related errors by 40%, enabling customers to successfully claim input credits.
Navan engaged the Eternalight team specifically for India focused solutioning and implementation. Working closely with Navan’s in-house team, Eternalight was involved in every stage from research and solution design to development and delivery, ensuring high quality, compliant, and scalable solutions tailored to the Indian market.
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