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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

Ryan McCulloch
March 21, 2025
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Let’s talk about Bakkt (NYSE: BKKT), which just released earnings this week.

 

 

For those unfamiliar with Bakkt, the company went public in a SPAC merger back in 2021 (M&A Alert here) at a $4.5B valuation and raised $448M to become a consumer crypto exchange paired with a loyalty rewards business. The company has struggled since launching and has transitioned to a B2B crypto custody, trading, and onramp provider following its acquisition of Apex Crypto (M&A Alert here). Since the transition to this B2B model in November 2022, the company’s stock has fallen by 78%, now sitting at a market capitalization of $161M.

 

 

This week, the company reported a modest increase in net revenue from 2023 to 2024 by $5M or 9% and an increase in Q3 to Q4 2024 net revenue by 33%. They also announced a leadership change, bringing on a new Co-CEO, Akshay Naheta, which comes after several recent management changes. Additionally, one of the company’s key assets—their NYDFS trust license, which they were using to offer custody services in NY—has been sold to ICE in a strategic divestiture.

 

 

It’s clear that Bakkt is doubling down on its core B2B crypto technology offering as it moves away from its regulated custody offering by divesting its NYDFS license and looking to divest its loyalty business. That being said, the customer that represented 74% of its crypto revenue, Webull, is dropping Bakkt, which will result in a material decline in revenue for 2025.

 

 

As a result of all this news, the company initially fell 34% this week, but ended the week essentially flat. We’ll be eager to see what other developments arise around Bakkt over the course of 2025.