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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
February 16, 2024
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News on Macro Economic Data

 

Major global economies continue to show slow growth.   Japan and the UK fell into recession at the end of 2023, and both China and Europe are in prolonged slowdowns.   The US economy has been more resilient, much of it fueled by government spending.  Last week, Fed Chairman Powell spoke up about the “unsustainable path” of the US government spending and US debt.   Government spending, which helped to keep the economy out of recession, also helps maintain sticky inflation making the job of the Fed much more difficult.  As an example, if direct government spending is taken out, 2023 growth falls from 2.5% to slightly higher than 1%.

 

Sticky inflation showed itself this week, as January CPI rose 3.1% YoY, and core inflation (ex-food and energy) rose 3.9%.  January’s PPI came in at 0.9% YoY vs. an estimate of 0.6%, and core PPI came in at 2% YoY vs. an estimate of 1.6%.  The housing report also disappointed with housing starts down 14.8% and permits down 1.5%.  

 

Many economists believe that the PPI most likely continues to increase due to energy costs and supply chain issues due to global instability, especially in the Middle East.  Based on recent economic news, the case supporting multiple rate cuts this year seems to be slipping.

 

Crypto Public Company Activity

Bitcoin’s approx. 90% rise in valuation over the past six months has had a positive impact on the entire crypto ecosystem.  Coinbase (COIN) announced a stellar Q4 2023 earnings report that they say was driven by the excitement around the Bitcoin ETF approvals and an expected improved 2024 macroeconomic environment.  

 

Coinbase reported revenue of $954M and a profit of $1.04 per share beating both top and bottom line expectations.   Highlights from the Coinbase report (QoQ improvements noted):

 

Transaction revenue rose 83% to $529M

 

Consumer transaction revenue increased 80% to $493M on $29B in trading volume

 

Institutional transaction revenue increased 161% to $37M on $125B in trading volume

 

  • Subscription and Services revenue rose 12% to $375M

 

  • Custodial revenue increased 24% to $20M

 

  • Net Income was $273M (up from a $2M loss in Q3)

 

Interesting to note that % of total trading volume for Bitcoin and Ethereum are both down (trading volume was 31% and 15% of overall trading respectively), and the trading volume of Altcoins is up substantially to 42% of the total. 

 

Coinbase’s growing importance is highlighted by the fact that eight of the new ETFs are using Coinbase’s custody service, and 33% of the largest hedge funds (by AUM) are utilizing the Coinbase platform.  

 

This is quite a turnaround as Coinbase emerges from the “Crypto Winter” and regulatory issues.  

 

Shares of Coinbase were up 8.6% today, and up ~140% over the last six months.