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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

Q3 2023 Crypto M&A and Financing Report

Dan Wang
October 5, 2023
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

Download the full report above.

Crypto Mergers & Acquisitions

 

Crypto dealmakers must have taken the summer off as M&A deals declined again

 

M&A deals involving crypto companies were down 48% from 50 deals in Q3 ‘22 to 26 in Q3 ‘23, with only 112 total so far for the year.

 

Announced deal value was also down to $110M, although only 4 deals disclosed their value, meaning they were quite small.

 

The value would have been much higher, except for the cancellations of two custody deals: Bitgo/Prime Trust and Ripple/Fortress.

 

Q4 will have to be huge to equal the record pace of 2022 (204 deals).

 

To see an increase in crypto M&A activity we need to see increased real-world adoption, more regulatory certainty (particularly in the USA), greater institutional investment leading to higher prices/greater M&A currency, and new digital asset developments.  

Crypto Private Financings

 

Q3 was a tough time for crypto financings

 

Deal count was down 6% (288) from Q3 (306) and capital raised was down 28% ($1.7B) in the same period ($2.36B) for a low point for the year.

 

Biggest impact this quarter was on large raises, which were few & far between.  Late stage financing amounts were down 59%, lower than any other series. We do know of several firms that tried but did not find the amounts or valuations desired.

 

In a larger context, crypto financings lagged both the overall tech and fintech sectors by several digits.

 

We are often asked if Q4 will improve. The sentiment from our network is that it will, but  muted vs. previous euphoric days.  In other words, a slow but not frozen market, where the muck is getting easier to slog through.

Crypto Public Companies

 

Public crypto is down with broader markets, but sector revenue growth remains solid  

 

Our public crypto market index is down 7% for the quarter, compared to approx. -3.6% Q3 moves by both S&P and NASDAQ.  


Network Operators again posted the largest move,  down 23% during a quarter that saw BTC drop 12% and energy pricing spike with Oil climbing 28.5% to 90.79/barrel (WTC).

Crypto-influenced lost 13%, while investment platforms gained a modest 5% for the quarter.

 

Revenue growth remained solid however, up an average of 93% for the year so far (largely led by the crypto mining group) which suggests that the public crypto sector is beginning to move in line with broader markets rather than sector fundamentals.  

 

Such amplified correlation may reflect an emerging theme – collaborative inroads with traditional institutions – which will eventually blur the lines between crypto and traditional finance.