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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.

Crypto Public Companies Snapshot

Crypto Public Companies Snapshot

Glenn Gottlieb
October 20, 2023
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News on Macro Economic Data

 

The view of the economy remains conflicted:

 

    • Fed Chairman Jay Powell spoke yesterday and suggested that rates may not be tight enough, but may pause in November, based on data showing economic growth is better than expected, strong consumer demand, and  inflation remaining stubbornly high at roughly 4%

 

    • Powell’s remarks are balanced against The Conference Board’s data showing that the leading economic indicators declined 0.7% in September following a 0.5% decrease in August, and a 3.4% decline over the last 6 months.  Lagging economic indicators are up only 0.1% over the same six-month period.   While the economy has shown resilience that will likely not continue and projects a shallow recession in the first half of 2024

 

Long rates at 16-year highs of roughly 5% along with growing geopolitical instability have had a negative effect on risk assets in general.

 

A November rate hike may not be in the works as long as 10 and 30-year treasury yields remain near 5% and continue to do the Fed’s job for it, and as the Fed keeps an eye on geopolitical instability.

 

Crypto Public Company Activity

 

Crypto assets had positive news on Thursday as the US Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its securities violations case against Ripple (XRP up 6.5% alone on Thursday), voting to dismiss the charges with prejudice.   This seems like a logical extension of the July ruling that “XRP is not, in and of itself a security”, and the recent denial of the SEC’s appeal of that ruling.  

 

There is optimism of a spot Bitcoin ETF getting SEC approval, perhaps this year.   The current optimism is beginning to drive up both the value of Bitcoin (again near or above $30,000), as well as associated equities.  Coinbase Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal told CNBC that he is confident that the ETF will be approved soon citing the SEC’s failure to block Grayscale from converting its GBTC bitcoin fund to an ETF.

 

Despite having licenses in multiple EU countries, Coinbase announced its EU Hub will be located in Ireland, an area where it already has an e-money license.   Coinbase is positioned well to operate once the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) laws are enacted, which allows crypto exchanges to operate across the EU providing it has at least one license for an EU member country.   Ireland was chosen due to its favorable approach to taxation.