Expand North Star = NovaPilot’s Inflection Point

From Market Validation to Global Rollout

Smart Bricks used Expand North Star as a springboard to connect with investors, partners, and customers worldwide. One year later, the AI-native real estate platform raised $5 million, and strengthened its position as a global proptech innovator.

Smart Bricks used Expand North Star as a springboard to connect with investors, partners, and customers worldwide. One year later, the AI-native real estate platform raised $5 million, and strengthened its position as a global proptech innovator.

With roughly one year of existence, Smart Bricks was eager to find a platform that could give them the necessary visibility to ramp off from early stage. Being part of the MBRIF (Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund) cohort at Expand North Star 2025 was a true game changer on the startup’s growth.

How? Recently, the AI-native real estate intelligence platform raised a $5 million pre-seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z speedrun), with participation from leading funds and angels across the US, Europe, and the Middle East, including Cento Ventures, whom the team first connected with at Expand North Star.

“Expand North Star gave us access to investors, partners, customers, and industry leaders from around the world at a time when those connections mattered most” – says Founder & CEO Mohamed Mohamed.

Among those connections was Cento Ventures, which went on to become one of the company's key investors. The relationship is a powerful example of how conversations initiated at Expand North Star can evolve into long-term partnerships that fuel startup growth. "Many of the relationships we built through Expand North Star continued long after the event, helping us expand our network, strengthen our international credibility, and create long-term value", he added.

FROM DUBAI TO GLOBAL SCALE

Founded in Dubai in 2024, and headquartered in the UAE, Smart Bricks’ vision was always global. The agentic AI infrastructure for real-estate investing is designed for retail and institutional operators deploying capital across international markets such as Dubai, London, New York, Miami, and major US cities.

The funding allows the company to accelerate product development, expand internationally, and continue investing in their solution. “For us, the round represents validation of both the scale of the problem we're solving and the opportunity to build a category-defining company from Dubai”, adds the CEO.

Since its launch, the startup developed one of the largest proprietary real estate intelligence datasets in the region and continue to expand our AI capabilities across sourcing, underwriting, portfolio management, and transaction execution.

Dubai: A Launchpad for Innovation

 

This success doesn’t happen by chance. Dubai Startup Ecosystem played a critical role in speeding up the company’s rapid growth.

Founders can easily access government support, world-class infrastructure, international investors, and customers from day one. “As an AI company, we've benefited enormously from the UAE's forward-thinking approach to innovation and technology. There is a genuine willingness here to embrace new ideas and help entrepreneurs scale global”, explains Mohamed.

Dubai provides access to talent, capital, customers, and a highly supportive innovation ecosystem.

Exhibit to Expand

 

This ecosystem comes together in one place – Expand North Star.

For startups looking to accelerate growth, Mohamed strongly recommends participating in the event.

“Show up with curiosity and be intentional about the conversations you have” – he advises. “Some of the most valuable relationships we've built started with a simple introduction or a chance conversation on the exhibition floor. Focus on building relationships with investors, customers, and partners that can compound over years. That's where the real value lies”.

Smart Bricks' journey - from meeting Cento Ventures at Expand North Star to closing a $5 million funding round - is a reminder that a single connection can become a catalyst for global growth.

If you're building the next breakthrough startup and looking to connect with investors, partners, customers, and global opportunities, Expand North Star is where those journeys begin.

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FACT CHECK

Smart Bricks is an AI-native real estate intelligence platform that helps investors discover, evaluate, and execute property investments more effectively. By analyzing billions of market data points, its AI-native agents identify opportunities, assess risk, forecast performance, and deliver institutional-grade real estate insights in one place. Their mission is to make institutional-grade real estate intelligence accessible to everyone. Keep up with SmarBricks journey on LinkedIn.