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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.

Snapshots

Week of September 11 – September 17

Michael S. Klena
September 20, 2023
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33 Crypto Private Financings Raised ~$138M

33 Crypto Private Financings Raised ~$138M

Rolling 3-Month-Average: $144M

Rolling 52-Week Average: $201M

 

Segment Overview

Deal count is up this week, although capital invested is down on a relative basis.  There are about 10 raises that didn’t report amounts, but I suspect they are on the smaller size.  This is a marker for earlier deals & smaller sizes overall.  Large raises and later stage remain few and far between.

 

Selected Highlights 

Mocaverse raised $20MM via SAFE notes, led by CMCC Global with six other investors tagging along. Mocaverse is a project under Animoca Brands, the sprawling gaming and metaverse firm, and is building identity based tools for Web3. It will combine identity with a loyalty program opening its use to the wider Animoca universe.  It also has a DAO based structure.

 

Why Notable?  Animoca Brands is an very active investor, with over 450 investments in various firms. Notable for bringing in other investors to further this project and striving for a network effect.  

 

Fipto raised €15MM led by Serena.  Fipto is a French fintech focused on payments, specifically using blockchain based digital assets for payments.

 

Why Notable? We continue to highlight real world use cases of blockchain beyond trading, and we’re seeing more activity in the payments space.  Friend of Architect Partners, Orbital (getorbital.com), for example, has expanded their product a few years ago with digital asset payments, and has seen its use explode.  All for the simple reason that it’s cheaper & less friction to move assets/monies globally.

 

OrangeX raised $10MM led by Kryptos Research with four other investors chipping in.  OrangeX is a relatively new crypto exchange, launched in 2021.

 

Why Notable? OrangeX has specifically stated the funds will go towards regulation frameworks. Trust is paramount for exchanges, and embracing regulation is a key aspect.  While there is a slow march to regulatory clarity, particularly outside of the US, it is not well defined despite 10 years of activity.  As noted previously, an exchange attracting capital in this environment is a feat in itself.

 

Patterns  

Broken record, but the catch-all “Infrastructure” remains the main segment. Gaming has been bubbling up lately as a sector, and in all forms.

 

Conferences  

We will be at Mainnet (Sept. 20-23).  If you will be there, let’s schedule time to connect.