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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
May 2, 2025
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Today, competition among crypto exchanges is fierce and continues to intensify by the week. What we’re seeing is a familiar market dynamic: a clear, phased evolution of players entering the space. This isn’t unique to crypto; it mirrors how innovation adoption has unfolded in other industries.

 

First Movers

Exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance were early entrants that captured significant market share by launching before widespread adoption. Their early positioning gave them brand dominance, regulatory head starts, and lasting influence. They will continue to operate on the leading edge and bring new coins and innovations ahead of other, slower entrants.

 

Fast Followers

Next came tech‑forward brokerages such as eToro, Robinhood, and Fidelity, along with neobanks like Revolut and Nubank. These companies quickly adopted crypto, integrating it into sleek, user‑friendly platforms. They capitalized on existing user bases and modern fintech infrastructure to scale rapidly. Today, crypto is an ever‑expanding part of their business and is highly prioritized.

 

Late Entrants

Now, established financial giants are entering the space. Firms like SoFi, E*TRADE, Charles Schwab, and notably Morgan Stanley all announced crypto initiatives this week. Though late, they bring credibility, trust, capital, and large customer networks, positioning them to gain share quickly as mainstream adoption accelerates. Of course, at this point, the market share will predominantly come from the existing players in the two groups above.

 

What’s Next?

The crypto industry still has a lot of growing up to do, but these trends are beginning to play out, and one can see a path toward maturity. Each platform must work tirelessly to build out ecosystems that encourage user retention and give customers a reason to stick with one provider over another. A good example of this is Coinbase, similar to Apple, which is building an entire ecosystem of products that supports its customers in every way. The company offers everything a retail, institutional, or even merchant customer could want, and it provides it in a very simple, relatively easy‑to‑use platform.