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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 29, 2024
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News on Macro Economic Data

Juxtaposed against a very strong Q1 stock market, PCE was announced today showing a 0.3% month-over-month increase and a 2.5% increase year-over-year.   Core PCE came in at 0.3% month-over-month, slightly better than expected (0.4%), and a 2.8% increase year-over-year.   

 

Spending and income data were also released today showing that with a 0.3% month-over-month increase, incomes are just keeping up with inflation.  Spending was significantly greater than expected (0.8% actual vs. 0.5% expected), outstripping income, and supporting data showing continued growth of record consumer credit card balances.  

 

With global growth seemingly accelerating, helping to drive commodity indexes and oil prices higher, US fiscal policy remaining a major cause of continued inflation by providing excess liquidity, and an inflation rate that seems to be increasing rather than declining, Fed Chair Powell said today that the Fed isn’t under pressure to cut rates and can wait to see how the inflation numbers come in.

 

Crypto Public Company Activity

On March 26, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla denied Coinbase’s motion to dismiss the SEC’s lawsuit, which alleges that Coinbase violated investor-protection laws.  The SEC claims that Coinbase operated as an unregistered intermediary of securities and engaged in the unregistered offer and sale of securities. While Judge Polk allowed the case to proceed, she also dismissed the claim that Coinbase acted as an unregistered broker through its crypto wallet.

 

The potential consequences for Coinbase are significant and could impact both the company and the broader cryptocurrency industry:

 

  • Legal Liability:  If found guilty of violating investor-protection laws, Coinbase could face monetary and other legal penalties.

 

  • Business Impact: To comply with regulations, Coinbase may need to make consequential operational changes, and may experience lower trading volumes as some users might move to other platforms.

 

  • Regulatory Scrutiny: The ruling enables increased SEC scrutiny and potential actions against other crypto exchanges and platforms.  One important section stated that “When a customer purchases a token on Coinbase’s platform, she is not just purchasing a token, which in and of itself is valueless; rather, she is buying into the token’s digital ecosystem, the growth of which is necessarily tied to value of the token.”   Tying the purchase of a token to the underlying ecosystem, much like a stock is tied to a company’s performance, is a potentially challenging view for the industry.  

 

Overall, this case sets a precedent for how crypto exchanges are treated under U.S. securities laws. The outcome could influence future legal battles and regulatory decisions in the crypto space.