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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
March 22, 2024
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News on Macro Economic Data

The Keynesian vs Supply Side debate took center stage this week.   The Fed generally supports the Keynesian model with the Phillips curve being fundamental to the Fed’s argument that unemployment needs to increase to depress demand, which will in turn ease inflation.  They do so despite the Phillips Curve rarely being historically accurate.   Against all his previous statements, Fed Chair Powell this week seemed to side with the Supply Side/Pro Growth model when he acknowledged that economic growth and low unemployment may not be driving inflation, while holding rates steady for the 5th consecutive meeting and suggested three rate cuts were still in consideration for this year.   Perhaps Mr. Powell is looking to stimulate economic activity through three cuts this year, since all his other previously stated criteria for rate cuts have not been met, given inflation slightly accelerated over the last two months.

 

There was some analysis regarding the effects of interest rates on jobs.  While the unemployment rate remains nominally low, since February 2023, 280,000 full time jobs have been lost and 900,000 part-time jobs have been gained, with many of those representing multiple job holders.  Taken in conjunction with household financial data, the collective information represents a weakened consumer.

 

Crypto Public Company Activity

Tokenization is projected to be a $10T market by 2030.  Tokenizing real world assets democratizes ownership by making them accessible to a broader audience of investors which can acquire fractional ownership and make the tokenized assets more liquid.  By leveraging blockchain technology, tokenized assets enjoy inherent security, and reduces the risk of fraud and manipulation.   Tokenization will be a driving force for financial innovation.

 

Larry Fink, CEO BlackRock, is known to want to “tokenize the world” and has embraced crypto markets, including their $13B Bitcoin ETF.   Now, BlackRock is supporting the importance of the eventuality of tokenization by announcing the formation of a new private fund, BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) operating on the Ethereum Network.   The fund is represented by the BUIDL token, and invests 100% of its total assets in cash, U.S. Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements. This allows investors to earn yield while holding the token on the blockchain.

 

Securitize (into which BlackRock also made a strategic investment) will be the tokenization and transfer platform, and BNY Mellon will custody funds assets.   BitGo, Coinbase, Anchorage Digital and Fireblocks are additional custody options.

 

Digitizing financial products is just the beginning of tokenization of real world assets, and BlackRock now joins Franklin Templeton, JP Morgan, and Citi.