From its origins in New Zealand to its launch in the UK, Bloxx is advocating for a new financial system. One that aims to turn renters into homeowners by changing who gets to own and how.

From social housing to startup founder

Smith’s motivation for starting Bloxx is rooted in his upbringing in social housing in Yorkshire. Thinking back on his early experience, he said: “My journey wasn’t shaped by a desire for wealth, but by the grounding I received growing up in social housing ... My mum couldn’t give me a financial leg up, but she gave me something more valuable. She ensured I got a good education, and I became the first in our family to go to university.”

With a baby on the way when he was 22, Smith found work in a building society, where he was able to access a staff mortgage with no deposit. The experience of going from renter to homeowner became the foundation for a shift in his life: “Six months in, I realised everything had changed. Owning a home felt completely different from renting ... That one step shifted our entire financial outlook and changed the course of our children’s lives.”

Now that he had seen first-hand how owning a home could transform a family’s future –and how the system was failing to offer that opportunity to others, Smith knew that something needed to change.

A ‘Matrix moment’ in banking

After years of working his way up in banking, Smith had set his sights on becoming a CEO who could drive reform from within. But he came to a realisation: “Despite my efforts to push boundaries and get ideas off the ground, I was repeatedly blocked. There was always a reason. Regulation. Profit margins. Credit risk. Board resistance ... The system always found a way to protect the status quo.”

In 2017, Smith experienced what he called his “‘Matrix’ moment” – the realisation that even from the top, true change would be out of reach.

“I had hidden my background. No one in the boardroom came from social housing, so I stayed silent ... I lost time and a part of myself.”

That moment became the catalyst to walk away and build something new. Not another mortgage product. Not another bank. But an entirely new system of ownership.

The mortgage is now the barrier

The core premise of Bloxx is to enable people to become homeowners from day one, without a mortgage, and allow their monthly payments to grow their equity.

“I thought back to the biggest financial shift in my own life – buying a home. But today, that’s out of reach for many. I saw that the mortgage, once the enabler, had become the barrier.”

This led Smith to take a three-year sabbatical – partly prompted by a move back to Yorkshire and extended by the pandemic –  and it gave him the clarity to rethink everything he knew.

“What if people could buy into their home from just 1%, and grow their equity over time through fixed monthly payments? Instead of rent being ‘dead money’, it could become the new way to achieve homeownership.”

This idea was also informed by lessons from the 2008 financial crisis and the failure of mortgage-backed securities. He began to consider a model that channels institutional equity, not debt, into housing, aligning the interests of home buyers, builders, and investors.

Lessons learned along the way

Bloxx is not Smith’s first foray into startup territory. He previously co-founded Ownify in the US, and that experience taught him two truths.

“Ownify taught me two essential lessons ... the need for deep values alignment, and the importance of building a resilient institutional investor funding model.”

Ownify’s model leaned on debt markets – just as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank hit. The resulting pressure exposed a lack of alignment among co-founders. “Like a hairline crack in a foundation,” said Smith, “it became impossible to ignore when the pressure came.”

Those lessons shaped Bloxx from day one. Every decision, from the funding model to the founding team, has been anchored to a shared purpose.

Why Bloxx started in New Zealand

With five million people, New Zealand offered a contained and well-regulated environment for experimentation. Over two years, the Bloxx team built and tested not just the product, but the underlying financial infrastructure.

“In early 2024, we completed a live end2end home purchase transaction through the new system, proving the model works.”

Without any marketing spend, Bloxx built a $2 billion pipeline of demand, identifying four main buyer groups: young professionals, self-employed individuals, people approaching retirement, and multi-generational families. The model was also confirmed to be Sharia-compliant.

Building for the UK market

With its live pilot complete, Bloxx is now focused on scaling in the UK.

“The UK doesn’t just need Bloxx. It’s crying out for it.”

Since the end of Help to Buy, homeownership in the UK has become even more elusive. Rising interest rates and inflation have intensified the affordability crisis, while Build-to-Rent models continue to normalise lifetime renting.

“We’re seeing the rise of ‘trapped renters’– people with stable incomes but no route to ownership.”

Bloxx offers a model whereby you become a homeowner from day one, with just a 1% deposit.

“Each month, your fixed payment grows your equity stake. You’re not paying off a loan, you’re buying more of your home.”

Institutional investors meet individual goals

At the heart of Bloxx is a new way to connect three siloed groups – buyers, builders, and investors – into one aligned ecosystem.

“For home buyers, we offer a new route to ownership. For home builders, we provide demand and take-out certainty. For institutional investors, we open access to a scalable, purpose-driven asset class.”

The company has built a tech-enabled onboarding experience, including what Smith describes as a “‘Tinder for property’, matching people with homes they can actually afford.” But the core of the business isn’t software. It’s the system behind it.

The path to 100,000 homeowners

Bloxx wants to help build 100,000 new homeowners. But to do that, it needs the right partners.

“We’re not chasing just any capital, we’re looking for values alignment ... This scale of innovation demands courage.”

The team is now focused on securing its foundational institutional investor partner(s) for the UK rollout. Smith is clear: this is not a soft launch.

“We’re in this for the long haul, and we’ll only move forward with the right fit.”

That long-term approach also applies to partnerships. Bloxx is open to working with developers, local authorities, and even other startups.

“We’re building a new ecosystem, and we are not trying to own the entire ecosystem. Transparency is central. We openly share our models and welcome conversations with anyone who can support our mission.”

A global housing rethink

Having worked in the US, UK, and New Zealand, Smith sees a troubling pattern emerging globally.

“Institutional investor funds are buying up homes, becoming the corporate landlord and normalising lifetime renting ... That’s not a solution. It’s a symptom of a broken system.”

Beyond finance, Smith sees deep social consequences when the pathway to homeownership is cut off. Bloxx, he hopes, is one way to reverse that trend.

“We want people to see Bloxx not just as a new financial system, but as a movement with the potential to reshape homeownership for good.”

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