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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 Quarterly Snapshots

Q2 2023 Crypto M&A and Financing Report

Dan Wang
July 7, 2023
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Download the full report above.

Crypto Mergers & Acquisitions

 

Q2 2023 Crypto M&A activity declined from the trend established over the past three years, dipping to Q1 2021 levels.

 

Comparable sectors such as technology and financial technology faced even sharper declines in volume.

 

 

BitGo’s proposed acquisition of Prime Trust (for 15 days before being abandoned) demonstrates that the lack of basic prudent management continues to plague our industry. 

 

Regulatory uncertainty, particularly in the U.S., continues to adversely impact M&A with Coinbase and Binance now embroiled in a protracted regulatory action by the SEC.

 

Prospects for improvement?  Pricing for Bitcoin, Ethereum and the public crypto equity markets suggest optimism.  We’re leaning toward pragmatic optimism.

 

Crypto Private Financings

 

Crypto private financing declined 75% in the first half of 2023 versus first half 2022. The number of financings remained fairly flat the past three quarters, but the amount raised has declined, especially for later stage rounds, consistent with broader tech.

 

The most active lead investors in 1H 2023 were a16z, CoinFund, Blockchain Capital, Outlier Ventures, Shima Capital and Animoca.  All were top prior year investors – but none invested at even half their 2022 pace.

 

The first half saw only six financing rounds over $100M.  The largest was a $250M round for eToro after canceling their SPAC plans – note that this was negotiated in 2021. The second largest was a $125M Series B for Blockstream. The third largest was a $120M Series B for LayerZero. This transaction felt like a return to early 2022 – a real Series B round size, at a solid valuation uptick, with a roster of quality investors. 

 

Crypto Public Companies

 

The public crypto markets offer a bright spot for the quarter.  Stock prices across our index rose by an average of 35% in Q2 2023 and 191% for the full first half of the year. Network Operators (mining companies) gained the most, growing 54% in Q2 2023 and 277% for the year so far. 

 

Investment platforms however were more muted, with with the sub-sector largely flat at 0.4% as Investors likely priced in the active scrutiny and high-profile enforcement actions into effected shares.  Interestingly, Coinbase showed a modest gain of 6% for the quarter, after losing ground but then reclaiming 39% in the weeks following the SEC suit initiated June 6. 

 

Also notable is the continued decoupling of the public crypto sector from the price of Bitcoin.  BTC ended the quarter at $30,405, for a modest 6.51%, suggesting that public crypto sector is breaking from historical correlation with the coin that started it all.

Architect Insights: Q2 2023 Crypto M&A and Financing Report Q2 2023 Crypto M&A and Financing Report