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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.

Insights

Week of August 19 – August 25

Glenn Gottlieb
August 28, 2024
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28 Crypto Private Financings Raised ~$187M 

Rolling 3-Month-Average: $193M

Rolling 52-Week Average: $193M

 

The summer funding slow down continues.  While a decent 28 companies were funded for a total of $187M, $113M was from two companies, Story Protocol and Fabric Cryptology.   This means $74M funded 26 companies, or an average of $2.8M per company. 

 

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Story Protocol represents a significant advancement in protecting intellectual property (IP) in the digital age, particularly in the face of challenges posed by artificial intelligence and widespread content sharing. By leveraging blockchain technology, Story Protocol creates a decentralized and transparent system for registering, tracking, and managing IP rights.

 

One of the key strengths of Story Protocol is its ability to transform static IP into “programmable IP” through the use of smart contracts and blockchain-based data structures. This allows creators to set clear, enforceable rules for how their work can be used, remixed, or monetized. By making these rights machine-readable and automatically enforceable, Story Protocol reduces the need for complex legal negotiations and intermediaries, streamlining the process of licensing and collaboration.

 

The protocol’s approach to creating a “Universal Programmable IP Ledger” addresses the current fragmentation and opacity in IP rights management. By aggregating IP information in a standardized, easily accessible format, Story Protocol increases the legibility of rights and ownership. This transparency not only helps protect creators’ rights but also facilitates easier discovery and legitimate use of IP by potential licensees.

 

Furthermore, Story Protocol’s blockchain-based system provides a robust mechanism for attribution and fair compensation. In an era where AI models are trained on vast amounts of data, often without proper attribution or compensation to original creators, Story Protocol offers a solution to ensure that creators are recognized and rewarded for their contributions. By enabling automated royalty payments and creating new revenue streams for creators, the protocol incentivizes continued creative output while protecting against unauthorized use, potentially addressing the long-term sustainability concerns in content creation and AI development.

 

Story Protocol raised an $80M Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), and included Polychain Capital, and Brevan Howard.  This funding round brought Story Protocol’s total raised capital to $140 million, with the company now valued at $2.25 billion according to anonymous sources cited by CNBC.  It’s worth noting that a16z Crypto has led three rounds of investment in Story Protocol, including this Series B round, which is described as a rare “tripling down” by the venture capital firm.