ARCHITECT SUCCESSES

SEE ALL
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 19, 2023
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

News on Macro Economic Data

 

There wasn’t much economic news this past week.   The economic picture shows signs of improvement, but also persistent headwinds.   Recession fears are receding, as a survey of economists believe the likelihood of a recession in 2024 is only 42%, but only project a 1.6% growth rate. 

 

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, made news by suggesting he is “…a little skeptical of this kind of Goldilocks scenario.  I still think the chances of it not being a soft landing are higher than other people”.    The Conference Board also believes it is more probable that the US will slip into a short and shallow recession than not in 2024.

 

San Francisco Fed President and voting member today said that inflation is not down to 2%, there is a lot of work left to do, and suggested it’s too early to suggest rate changes are around the corner.  

 

Crypto Public Company Activity

 

Stock in the top 12 Bitcoin miners fell sharply this week and are down about $6B in market capitalization since January 1 according to TheMinerMag.   This drop is certainly the result of a confluence of factors rather than a singular event.  A few possible catalysts include:

 

  1. Miner revenue does fluctuate, but the trend line has been declining in recent weeks.  Total fees have fallen over the past 30 days from ~$60M per day to ~$40M per day according to YCharts

 

  1. The Expected April Bitcoin halving will reduce mining rewards in half which investors could believe will adversely affect profitability and negatively impact stock prices

 

  1. Bitcoin ETFs enable a direct, efficient, and liquid investment in Bitcoin that may be reallocating funds away from mining stocks.   It would be a justifiable rotation to reallocate profits from the Q4 2023 runup in mining stocks to the current increasing value of Bitcoin

 

  1. Negative news within a sector generally has a corresponding negative effect on an entire sector.  Hut8 fell 20% on Thursday alone, as unverified reports emerged of financial misbehavior regarding its recent $742M merger with US Bitcoin Corp.  The allegation came from J Capital Research – a short seller of Hut8 stock

 

The world of crypto mining is complex, and this short-term move is worth keeping an eye on.  Like any risk asset, there are always both positive and negative movements.   And, in the volatile world of crypto, all investments carry above-average risk and deserve deep diligence.