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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 July 31 – August 6

Peter B. Stoneberg
August 6, 2023
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Ayre Group, a global investment firm, has agreed to acquire nChain, a global blockchain technology company founded in 2015 with 240 employees and is the developer of the Bitcoin SV Node software, Teranode and LiteClient.  The deal could be worth up to $570 million consisting of an equity acquisition of nChain by the Ayre Group, an IP licensing deal for Ayre Ventures portfolio companies, and a line of credit. The acquisition will give Ayre Group a controlling interest in nChain, which holds nearly 800 patents related to blockchain technology and claims that they have over 3000 more patents applied for.  nChain’s IP portfolio covers a wide range of areas, including Web3, non-fungible tokens, and smart contracts. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023.

 

Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection, has acquired Roar Studios, a company that develops immersive media experiences. The acquisition will help Yuga Labs to further develop its Otherside metaverse, which aims to create a decentralized, user-owned virtual world.  Roar Studios is known for its work on ROAR, a platform that allows artists and fans to connect, collaborate, and compete in an immersive, real-time entertainment world. Yuga Labs CEO Daniel Alegre said that the acquisition of Roar Studios will help accelerate the execution of the company’s vision for Otherside and Yuga’s ecosystem more broadly.  Roar Studios CEO Eric Reid will join Yuga Labs as General Manager of Otherside. The acquisition of Roar Studios shows that Yuga Labs is committed to building a leading metaverse platform, and it brings together two of the most innovative companies in the space. Terms were not disclosed.