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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.

Ecosystem Thoughts

Q1 2025 Crypto M&A and Financing Report

Eric F. Risley
April 3, 2024
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

Download the full report above.

State of the Crypto Markets: Crypto Solid but Macro Headwinds?

 

Three months ago our Q4 2024 report started with: “The U.S. elections and the associated expected shift in the U.S. regulatory stance have changed everything.” 

 

That remains true, however, we have a newly introduced macro theme: economic and foreign policy uncertainty driven by tariffs and the potential reshuffling of global alliances. We write this hours after the U.S. administration revealed its tariff plans. Only time will tell the impact of these dynamics as well as the ability to advance constructive crypto legislation in the U.S. 

 

We remain cautiously optimistic as both crypto M&A and private financing have trended upward in Q1 2025.

 

Our 2024 Year-End Crypto M&A and Financing Report is linked here for your reference.

 

 

Q1 2025 CRYPTO HIGHLIGHTS

 

Mergers & Acquisition Activity Up Strongly

M&A activity in Q1 2025 is even stronger than Q4 2024, again reaching a record level of transactions and hitting an all-time high in announced consideration paid. Strategic, high-value M&A is beginning to reemerge, with Kraken’s $1.5B acquisition of NinjaTraders being the marquee deal and we also count six transactions above $100M. 

 

Private Financing Activity Also Building 

Private financing activity and investment capital also rose in Q1 2025. Seed and early stage continue to dominate deal flow, however, most of the consideration this quarter was tied up in growth stage financings. This is a positive sign for the industry, as the fundamental prerequisites for growth stage equity are strong financial performance and relative maturity. This exists so we anticipate further growth in this segment of the financing market.

 

Public Markets Demonstrate Crypto Volatility

The Architect Partners Crypto Index rose 50% in 2024 and gave up roughly half of that in Q1 2025. For context, Bitcoin declined 10% in Q1 while our index of public companies fell 23%. Trading volume, the lifeblood of many in our index, declined 25%. Circle’s IPO S-1 became public as we write this and large capital raises, mostly via convertible debt instruments, for both Bitcoin mining expansion and speculative purchase of Bitcoin for treasury holdings continued unabated from last year’s pace.

 

 

STRATEGIC THEMES ARCHITECT PARTNERS IS TRACKING

 

To keep us honest let’s see how Q1 demonstrated our themes presented in our year end report.

 

Crypto Has Delivered Exceptional Value Creation

  • Q4 Statement: Crypto has attracted $130B of risk capital which today represents $3.4T in value and 25x returns, much better than traditional venture investing. This far outpaces the Internet at the same point in market development. 
  • Q1 Progress: Our 2025 update to Family Ties was published on February 13th. Q1 2025 ended with $2.8T in value (vs. $3.4T) but the fundamental point remains: crypto investment returns have been exceptional.

 

Initial Public Offerings are Coming

  • Q4 Statement: Numerous companies are on that track but 2026 may be stronger than 2025.
  • Q1 Progress: Circle just released their S-1 and Amber Group debuted on the NASDAQ.

 

Leverage Is Quickly Returning

  • Q4 Statement: Is leverage friend or foe this time? 
  • Q1 Progress: Friend so far, with risk management high priority. Data is difficult to compile but we see significant growth in both collateralized and uncollateralized lending.

 

Mergers & Acquisitions – It’s Time for Urgency

  • Q4 Statement: Traditional financial services companies are entering crypto, a potentially existential competitive threat to some crypto-native players. Both will be spurred into action.
  • Q1 Progress: Legislation is important for action but traditional financial services players are already re-engaging in preparation.

 

Moving Beyond Speculation – An Important Next Step

  • Q4 Statement: Stablecoins are proving to be a real-world use case, with businesses and consumers partaking. Other use cases with both viability and scalability remain unclear.
  • Q1 Progress: The payments use case is also taking root. More from Architect Partners soon.

 

Eric F Risley

Founder & Managing Partner

April 3, 2025