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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.

Financing

Week of January 13 – January 19

Todd White
January 22, 2025
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January 13 – January 19 (Published January 22nd)

PERSPECTIVES by Todd White

 

25 Crypto Private Financings Raised: $380.7M

Rolling 3-Month-Average: $161.3M

Rolling 52-Week Average: $202.3M

 

The crypto and digital asset industry market has faced persistent challenges in accessing global banking services. Traditional banks were initially highly skeptical of all things crypto, viewing them as risky and potentially facilitating illegal activities. This led to widespread reluctance in the provision of banking services to crypto-related businesses, exacerbated by the lack of clear regulations and concerns about compliance and AML/KYC, particularly in the US. Then, aggressive US regulatory actions, known as Operation Choke Point 2.0 — where many businesses in the US crypto industry have been systematically denied banking services — precipitated the high-profile closures of crypto-friendly banks such as Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank in 2023.

 

These events seem to have reinforced the initial reluctance, with increased scrutiny and hesitancy across the banking sector to provide services to crypto firms. Yet the market has now survived the “great purge,” and current opportunities for those willing to tackle them seem myriad and compelling — for both banks and the investors who back them. A definitive movement is starting to take place.

 

Sygnum, a Swiss-based global digital asset banking group, has been working hard to fill the void and closed a $58 million strategic growth round this week at a post-money valuation of over US $1B. With banking licenses in Switzerland and Singapore and regulatory approvals in Abu Dhabi, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein, Sygnum has established a broad platform for its offerings, which include institutional-grade security, regulated digital asset banking, asset management, tokenization, and B2B services such as a recently launched 24/7 multi-asset settlement network known as SygnumConnect. They now claim $5 billion in assets from 2,000+ clients across more than 70 countries.

 

Fulgar Ventures, a venture capital firm focusing on Bitcoin technologies, served as a cornerstone investor to close the round. Focused on infrastructure and applications that drive Bitcoin adoption, Fulgar has been active, including:

 

  • Leading infrastructure company Blockstream’s $210m raise last October (and last week investing $75m in Komainu, a regulated digital asset services provider and custodian, backed by Laser Digital, a Nomura company).

 

  • Leading marketplace firm STOKR’s $8m growth round the same month.

 

  • Participating in Elysium’s March ’24 bridge as well as Amboss’ seed round in 2023.

 

The dynamic investor has positioned itself across the Bitcoin ecosystem, and its latest support of Sygnum may help broaden the foundational infrastructure that Bitcoin and crypto more generally need to thrive.

 

It is not without irony that a technology often touted for its ability to “bank the unbanked” has itself been… well… substantially unbanked. But bold moves to build secure, regulated solutions backed by investors with the belief, appetite, and available capital to support them may help change that. And with apparently dramatic shifts in regulatory winds, there is hope such moves may prove to be prescient and profitable.

Contact ryan@architectpartners.com to schedule a meeting.