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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 M&A Snapshot

Week of December 23 – December 29

Eric F. Risley
December 29, 2024
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December 23rd – December 29th

PERSPECTIVES by Eric F. Risley 

 

 

Where There Is Smoke, There Is Fire?

 

Have you ever read the headlines of The New York Times and The Washington Post and found them to be identical? I’m certain both closely monitor each other. Many, though certainly not all, crypto news businesses operate on shoestring budgets and primarily function as aggregators of news and information from others. In other words, their entire approach is to monitor others, creating an echo chamber. Do they concern themselves with credible source confirmation? Not likely. The result can be the rapid spread of “news” with questionable credibility.

 

This dynamic was on full display this week with the numerous definitive statements claiming that Hel.io has been acquired by MoonPay. To be fair, some sources indicated this was a rumor, while others omitted that important qualification. The original source appears to be Eleanor Terret of Fox Business, who posted on X with a very definitive statement that talks are in progress.

 

The standard-bearers of credible news and information in our industry (in my opinion and open to healthy debate) are Blockworks, CoinDesk, The Block, and Bloomberg Crypto. None of these four reported this news. Were they just on vacation for the holidays? Was it an oversight? Or do they adhere to standards of publishing only with credible source verification? I don’t know. But what I do know is that credible source validation is crucial in situations like this.

 

Contemplated M&A transactions often leak—both intentionally and otherwise—before an actual agreement is reached. Does the rumored transaction have strategic merit? Yes. Is it possible it will be officially announced soon? Of course. If and when that happens, we will dive into it more deeply. In the meantime, we will patiently await verification of the facts.

 

This coming week, we will be publishing our Year-End 2024 Crypto M&A and Financing Snapshot. 2024 was a good year, and the trend looks positive as we enter 2025. Here’s to a great year ahead for our industry!