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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
January 12, 2023
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News on Macro Economic Data

 

CPI came in slightly higher than expected for December ending 2023 up 3.4% year over year.   However, December’s PPI unexpectedly dipped 0.1% in December, representing three straight months of decline, and a 1% increase year over year.  Overall, the two numbers represent a cautiously optimistic view of the economy going forward.    

 

The Fed’s interest rate hiking cycle along with quantitative tightening has done its job of reducing inflation from its highs, although getting down to the targeted 2% may take much longer and may be harder to achieve due to persistent economic pressures.  Lingering inflation also remains an issue, with overall prices up 17.6% since January 2021 (food up 33.7%, shelter up 18.7%, energy up 32.8%, and electricity up 27.1%), with many of these price increases being permanent. 

 

For now, despite ongoing major geopolitical events, rising oil prices, the ever-rising US debt, and other issues, the economy remains resilient and appears to be headed only for a slight contraction in 2024.  Earning season just kicked off and 2024 guidance will be important. 

 

Crypto Public Company Activity

 

One more week of Bitcoin ETFs

 

The SEC approved eleven spot bitcoin ETFs this week which saw a total of $4.6B in volume on the first day of trading with Grayscale Bitcoin Trust leading the way with $2.32B.

 

The general investor will get all the usual benefits of ETFs – liquidity, easy access, and security.  Portfolio management also becomes much easier for the general investor who wishes to allocate a portion of assets into more speculative investments. 

 

The fees charged by the ETFs are significantly lower than existing bitcoin funds.  However, an interesting aspect of the SEC’s rules for these ETFs is that bitcoin transaction fees are operating expenses and are not deducted from each customer transaction.   This will reduce the overall performance of the ETF – to what extent will only be known over time. 

 

One of the true winners is Coinbase which is providing much of the “plumbing”. For most of the ETFs Coinbase will be the crypto custodian as well as the likely exchange for ETF bitcoin trading.  Coinbase is also responsible for SEC-mandated surveillance-sharing agreements with the listing exchanges providing details of crypto trading that could affect ETF prices.