Champ Titles Inc., the Cleveland startup that uses technology to speed up the automobile title transfer and lien process, has raised $18 million.
The Series C funding round was led by Point72 Ventures, the bicoastal venture capital firm owned by Steven Cohen, the hedge fund manager who also owns the New York Mets baseball team. Among existing investors in the recent round were W.R. Berkley Corp., Eos Venture Partners, Guidewire Software and Rev1 Ventures, Champ Titles said.
Champ Titles expects to use the funds to fuel the growth of its digital vehicle title, registration and lien records platform in the United States. Through its Digital Title and Registration Suite, Champ partners with state governments to improve motor vehicle departments by replacing aging title and registration systems.
"We made tremendous progress over this past year — we onboarded new states, including New Jersey, Kentucky and Illinois; expanded our relationship with West Virginia by creating the first National Digital Titling Clearinghouse; and grew revenue by more than 300%," Champ CEO Shane Bigelow said in a statement Wednesday.
"We could have continued growing at a measured pace, but we are incredibly excited and grateful to have this round of financing to accelerate our business as we enter our next phase of growth with our great state [department of motor vehicles] partners,” Bigelow said.
The title management process for many states still is "largely paper-based, error-prone and requires significant time and effort from all parties involved," said Adam Carson, a partner at Point72 Ventures, in the statement. "We believe Champ Titles' platform offers a comprehensive and simplified solution for state DMVs and addresses a longstanding pain point."
Since its founding in 2018, Champ Titles has raised more than $45 million from investors, including $12.9 million in 2022 during its Series B round of financing. The company was one of Cleveland Inno's Startups to Watch in 2022.
