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Champ Titles Raised $18M from Point72 Ventures
Champ Titles Raised $18M from Point72 Ventures

Architect Partners was the exclusive Financial Advisor to Champ Titles.

Transaction Overview

On March 27, 2024, Cleveland-based digital title and registration platform Champ Titles announced an $18 million Series C equity round led by Point72 Ventures with participation by existing investors.

Company Description

Champ Titles provides a digital title and registration suite to streamline the vehicle titling process. Their platform enables the creation of legal, digital titles for easy transfer and verification, serving insurance carriers, lenders, state governments, auto dealers, and owners. Stakeholders, including state motor vehicle departments, lenders, and vehicle owners, benefit from a unified and transparent system, where all information is readily accessible and transaction times are markedly reduced. The governance of the digital platform is established through clear guidelines, ensuring all parties adhere to the updated processes and regulations.

Champ Titles’ success is measured by the elimination of more than 5 million pieces of paper annually on average per state; a reduction in processing time from 40-60 days to a matter of hours; increased productivity of DMV title clerks processing more than five times as many titles per day; and the improved experience for consumers in each state that has adopted Champ Titles’ solutions. Over the last twelve months, the company has successfully onboarded new states including New Jersey, Kentucky, and Illinois, and expanded its relationship with West Virginia by creating the first National Digital Titling Clearinghouse (NDTC). Through these efforts, the company has grown rapidly with revenue increasing by more than 300% year over year. 

Founded in 2018 by CEO, Shane Bigelow, the company now has 63 employees and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. 

Funding

In this Series C funding round, Champ Titles raised $18M from Point72 Ventures and existing investors including W.R. Berkley Corporation, Eos Venture Partners, Guidewire Software, and Rev1 Ventures, bringing the total amount raised since inception to $45M. 

In the prior Series B round, Champ Titles raised $13M from Guidewire Software, Eos Venture Partners, and Ally Ventures.

Before that, Champ Titles raised $13.5M in 2021 in a Series A. Emergents, now Architect Partners, served as the exclusive Financial Advisor for that financing. 

Competition

Champ Titles’ biggest competitors are existing state DMVs deciding to be a software company and developing solutions on their own or via large systems developers.  However, they also compete with other digital title networks such as Cario and Oxhead Alpha/Tezos. In addition, technology-enabled DMV solutions such as Fast Enterprises are seen as competitive but don’t offer the same efficacy.

 

Architect Partners’ Perspective

Champ Titles’ SaaS-based solutions present a compelling example of blockchain-enabled infrastructure solving real-world problems.  By focusing on the needs and pain points of legacy auto title, registration, and lien processing, Champ has leveraged the power of blockchain to transform critical government services.  The result is exponentially accelerated processing time for DMV constituents, with improved accuracy and reduced cost.  Yet Champ’s solutions capture many key benefits of on-chain data processing – which include trust, transparency, data integrity, security, and efficiency – without users even being aware of their blockchain foundations.  

While much attention is focused on recent resilience in crypto asset prices, we believe 2024 will see significant growth in non-speculative enterprise applications for distributed ledger technology.  Champ’s successful raise demonstrates investor interest in practical and scalable solutions to real-world problems.

Insights

2024 Year End Crypto M&A and Financing Report

Eric F. Risley
January 8, 2024
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

Download the full report above.

State of the Crypto Markets: We enter 2025 with optimism

 

The U.S. elections and the associated expected shift in the U.S. regulatory stance have changed everything. 

Crypto asset values, public equity prices, public financings and the less visible M&A and private financing markets have all demonstrated this change in sentiment. Even more importantly, corporate executives and venture capital and growth investors who started 2024 with caution now end the year with optimism. This optimism is reflecting itself in our frequent conversations and transaction-related engagement with ecosystem players, both crypto-native and traditional finance. Plenty of challenges remain but we also feel optimistic that 2025 may be looked upon in retrospect as a breakout year.

This Year-End Crypto M&A and Financing Report provides detailed data and observations. 

 

 

2024 CRYPTO YEAR IN REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

 

Mergers & Acquisition Activity Up Strongly

M&A activity is back, reaching a record level of transaction announcements in Q4 2024, rounding out the year on a strong upswing. Overall 2024 increased by 29% in transaction count from last year and we are now within spitting distance of record 2022 levels. Regardless of increased activity levels, the vast majority of transactions are “tactical” and rather small. Anecdotal evidence suggests this will change in 2025 with the reemergence of strategic, high-value M&A.

 

Private Financing Activity Recovering As Well

Similarly, private financing activity was up 31% in 2024 with the strength coming from seed and early stage venture. Growth stage activity continues to be challenged actually decreasing by 6.3% this year, however, this too is likely to change. The catalyst will be strengthening financial performance by relatively mature crypto businesses, the necessary prerequisite to attracting growth capital.

 

Public Markets Demonstrated Exceptional Price Appreciation and Financing Activity

The Architect Partners Crypto Index rose 59% in 2024, significantly outperforming other equity indices and assets such as gold. Many in the index significantly outperformed the index overall. The public financing spigot, particular debt, was wide open with $18.5B raised in public markets, by several Bitcoin network operators, Coinbase, and the unique anomaly called Microstrategy.

 

 

2025 THEMES ARCHITECT PARTNERS IS TRACKING

 

Crypto Has Delivered Exceptional Value Creation

Crypto has attracted $130B of risk capital which today represents $3.8T in value, 29x returns, far better than traditional venture investing. This far outpaces the Internet at the same point in market development. More coming soon when we publish an update to our Family Ties report.

 

Initial Public Offerings are Coming

Numerous companies are on that track but 2026 may be stronger than 2025

 

Leverage Is Quickly Returning

Friend or foe this time? 

 

Mergers & Acquisitions – It’s Time for Urgency

Traditional financial services companies are entering the crypto space, a potentially existential competitive threat to some crypto-native players. Both will be spurred into action.

 

Moving Beyond Speculation – An Important Next Step

Stablecoins are proving to be a real-world use case, with both businesses and consumers participating. What other use cases have viability and can scale? The answer remains opaque.

 

 

Eric F Risley

Founder & Managing Partner

January 8, 2025