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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 May 12 – May 18

Todd White
May 21 2025
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

May 12 – May 18 (Published May 21st)

PERSPECTIVES by Todd White

 

33 Crypto Private Financings Raised: $181.3M

Rolling 3-Month-Average: $524.7M

Rolling 52-Week Average: $272.2M

 

Please note our partner Steve Payne will be doing a fireside chat with Tony Pecore, SVP at Franklin Templeton, at Digital Assets Week / Palo Alto on May 23rd.

 

Crypto mining operations, especially Bitcoin, are energy-intensive and were recently reported to consume about 0.6 % of global electricity. This high demand for power, historically sourced from fossil fuels, has raised significant concerns among environmentalists about mining’s carbon footprint, water use, and broader environmental impacts.

 

These environmental costs have led to strong criticism and calls for the sector to reduce consumption and transition to cleaner energy sources. While some of the criticism may be overblown, the fact remains that crypto mining is an energy hog, and the industry has begun addressing the issue. Many mining operations are shifting to renewable energy sources such as hydroelectric, solar, wind, and geothermal power. Some blockchains are moving away from energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) systems toward proof-of-stake (PoS) and other less demanding consensus mechanisms, aiming for net-zero carbon emissions. In a bit of irony, blockchain technology itself is being used to certify the origin of green energy, facilitate peer-to-peer energy trading, and automate renewable-energy transactions through smart contracts to improve transparency and verify claims about green-energy use and emissions.

 

Mining facilities and data centers can also play a pivotal role as energy off-takers, making green-energy projects more financially viable. Co-locating with energy facilities, green or otherwise, can provide assured off-taker contracts, making projects easier to finance at scale. Because data centers can shift computational workloads to periods or locations with surplus power, operators can absorb excess supply that might otherwise be curtailed (or simply burned as flare gas), thereby reducing pressure on peak loads. This demand flexibility supports grid stability, facilitates the use of green energy, and helps plan for future growth in energy demand.

 

PBK Miner sits at the center of this dynamic and closed an USD 80 million Series B round last week. The UK group, founded in 2019, operates a cloud-mining platform that runs entirely on renewable energy, allowing users to invest remotely in fixed-term contracts with daily returns without purchasing, maintaining, or operating physical mining hardware. The energy mix includes solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal sources across a network of more than 100 large-scale data centers. PBK aims to reduce both its operational costs and carbon footprint and is integrating AI modules to optimize resource allocation and identify optimal windows to lower energy consumption. Proceeds from the round will support the development of advanced computing facilities and further integration of AI to improve mining efficiency, enhance system performance, and increase user benefits.

 

Contact ryan@architectpartners.com to schedule a meeting.