When Smart Bricks first joined the Barclays Black Founder Accelerator, the company was an ambitious, early-stage startup. Today, it is a venture-backed powerhouse serving thousands of users around the world, with more than $5 million raised and a growing reputation as one of the most exciting companies reshaping the future of proptech.
At the heart of this journey is a bold mission: to take the world’s largest asset class and make it as intelligent, accessible, and data-driven as trading public stocks.
Smart Bricks is an AI-native real estate investment platform built to eliminate the heavy lifting from property investing. By leveraging agentic AI and proprietary data, the platform automates the most tedious and fragmented parts of the investment lifecycle, allowing users to source hidden opportunities, underwrite assets and monitor portfolios in seconds rather than weeks.
The inspiration behind the business came from recognizing a massive gap in how the industry operates.
"Despite real estate being the world's largest asset class, investing in it remains incredibly fragmented, opaque, and manual," says Mohamed Mohamed, Founder of Smart Bricks. "Having worked across investing, strategy and technology, I saw an opportunity to build the 'intelligence layer' that could finally bring real estate into the modern digital age."
Every founder knows that building a startup can be a lonely journey. When Mohamed joined the Barclays accelerator, he wasn't just looking for business frameworks. He was looking for a community of ambitious entrepreneurs tackling meaningful problems.
The programme's emphasis on shared learning and direct access to mentors, operators and investors aligned perfectly with his belief that entrepreneurship thrives through collaboration. Looking back, those relationships became one of the most valuable aspects of the entire experience.
"The community was undoubtedly the most valuable part," Mohamed reflects. "Being surrounded by founders facing similar hurdles created an environment where we could openly share lessons, support one another and drastically accelerate our learning."
Exposure to seasoned investors and operators during a critical stage of growth forced a vital mindset shift for the company. The experience reinforced a core startup truth: successful businesses are built through continuous adaptation and a relentless focus on the end-user.
"The biggest lesson I took away was the importance of focusing relentlessly on customer problems rather than becoming overly attached to our own particular solution," says Mohamed.
That customer-first framework continues to shape how Smart Bricks develops and evolves its product suite today, helping Mohamed grow in confidence as a leader. "It reinforced my belief that ambitious, global companies can be built by founders from any background, provided they have the determination, support, and willingness to keep learning," he notes.
Since graduating from the programme, Smart Bricks’ trajectory has been meteoric.
The business has transitioned into a globally recognized AI company, achieving milestones that most startups only dream of:
Despite the high-profile awards and venture backing, Mohamed measures success by a different metric: real-world customer impact.
"Beyond the fundraising and accolades, I'm most proud of the impact we've had on everyday investors," Mohamed shares. "We consistently hear stories from users who are making sharper decisions, discovering opportunities they otherwise would have completely missed, and approaching real estate investing with a level of confidence they never had before."
Smart Bricks has no plans of slowing down. The company’s long-term vision is to become the definitive global operating system for real estate investing. Over the coming years, the team plans to scale into new geographic markets, strengthen its institutional platform, and deploy AI systems capable of automating increasingly complex aspects of the investment transaction.
"Longer term, we believe every major real estate investment decision will be supported by AI," says Mohamed. "We're building the infrastructure to make that future possible."
Reflecting on the journey that started it all, Mohamed offers a crucial piece of advice for the next generation of accelerator participants: prioritize the people over the paperwork.
"Many founders focus primarily on the workshops and content, but the real ROI often comes from the relationships you build with fellow founders, mentors, investors, and operators. Those relationships can last for years and often become far more valuable than any individual classroom session."
Smart Bricks' journey demonstrates what happens when cutting-edge innovation meets community, resilience, and a crystal-clear vision. From an early-stage startup to an internationally recognized AI leader, the business continues to redefine what's possible in real estate, one intelligent decision at a time.
