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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 November 4 – November 10

Eric F. Risley
November 10, 2024
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November 4th – November 10th

PERSPECTIVES by Eric F. Risley 

 

 

Historically, crypto brokers and exchanges have been active acquirers, often at premium values. This changed during Crypto Winter, when they universally became cautious, for many good reasons.

 

 

So far, in spite of generally good business performance since Crypto Winter broke in October 2023, brokers and exchanges have not yet fully returned to acquisitions as a tool for strategy. There are several reasons, including regulatory dysfunction in the U.S., newly formed management prudence following a long and difficult Crypto Winter, and the characteristics of the post-Winter trading markets, particularly trading volume.

 

 

Trading volume is the economic engine for brokers and exchanges, driving the majority of revenue for most. As such, we often assess trading volumes, rather than asset prices, as the key determinant of “health” for this portion of our industry.

 

 

As demonstrated by the CCData chart below, Crypto Winter broke in October 2023, and trading volume surged for six months. However, since April 2024, trading volumes have been well below the March 2024 peak and roughly flat for the past six months. When assessed on a quarterly basis, CCData reported Q1 2024 volume totaling ~$5.6T; Q2 2024 was down ~15% from Q1, and Q3 was down ~13% from Q2. Interestingly, Coinbase, one of the marquee acquirers, has experienced a somewhat steeper drop-off, with trading volume down 28% in Q2 vs. Q1 and down 17% Q3 vs. Q2, according to their regulatory filings. Generally speaking, the conviction to execute acquisitions requires strong confidence in the financial health of the acquirer’s business. This has simply been lacking over the past six months.

 

 

The past several weeks show early promise that this dynamic may be changing. According to Messari, overall centralized exchange volume was up 258.9% compared to the previous week; however, one week does not a trend make.