SmartEnds was founded in Ghent in 2017 with a simple belief — that knowing what is in a container should not require a manual check. Nine years later, 120K+ sensors deployed since 2017 are telling the world exactly that.
Every day, thousands of collection trucks drive routes that were designed years ago — stopping at bins that are empty, missing ones that are overflowing, and hauling loads that were never properly sorted. The problem is not logistics. The problem is visibility.
SmartEnds OS gives operators real-time intelligence across every container they manage — whether that is a public bin in Westminster, a cooking oil tank in a Belgian restaurant, or a large-scale flood-monitoring deployment in the Middle East. One platform. One source of truth. No more blind spots.
Noman founded SmartEnds in Ghent in 2017 and leads SmartEnds BV and SmartEnds USA Inc. Before SmartEnds he spent 15 years in wireless and embedded engineering at imec, Cisco and Technicolor, working on networks and gateways for operators such as BT, Verizon and Telecom Italia. That’s why SmartEnds hardware runs AI at the edge, lasts for years on a container and works on low-bandwidth networks. Under his leadership SmartEnds has grown to 120K+ sensors in 25+ countries, won a 10-year contract with Westminster City Council and Veolia, and launched VisnLine and SmartEnds OS.
MSc ICT (KIT Karlsruhe, UCLouvain) · BSc Electrical Engineering
Imdad co-founded SmartEnds and leads operations, supply chain, hardware deployment and customer success across all markets. He brings 30 years in telecom and technology, including 16 years at Technicolor, where he directed R&D across three continents and delivered carrier-grade programmes for BT, Verizon, Telstra and Telecom Italia, including the launch of BT’s Home Hub. He brings that telco discipline to waste, from 25-sensor pilots to rollouts of thousands of units.
MEng Telecommunications (AIT) · INSEAD, Strategy in the Age of Digital Disruption
Brian leads SmartEnds across North and South America from Boston. He has spent more than 15 years building the US smart-waste market: 11 years as VP Sales & Strategic Partnerships at Enevo, working with Fortune 200 organisations, and before that as Director of Channel Management at Bigbelly, running its partnership with Waste Management. Few people know US haulers, recyclers and municipalities like Brian.
MBA, IE Business School
Ali runs product and R&D from SmartEnds’ headquarters in Ghent, where every BrighterBins sensor, VisnLine camera and SmartEnds OS feature is designed and validated. He leads the hardware, firmware and AI roadmap, including edge-AI development, and signs off every change before it reaches the field.
Heera leads firmware and AI algorithm development at our Ghent R&D centre. Her work spans embedded firmware, computer-vision models and software design, the layer that lets a battery-powered sensor run for years and a camera recognise contamination in real time.
Our R&D centre is anchored at our headquarters in Ghent, Belgium: hardware, firmware, AI and SmartEnds OS are designed and developed here.
Named among the top 10 smart waste sensor technology vendors worldwide by installed base — Berg Insight, 2024.
Not a startup chasing a trend. Nearly a decade of deployments, iteration, and hard-won customer trust.
EU customer data stays in the EU, North American data is hosted in North America, and on-premise deployment is available where data must stay in-country. GDPR compliant by design.
Every year has added a new vertical, a new region, or a new product capability. Growth built on deployments — not decks.
SmartEnds BV is founded in Ghent, Belgium. The first BrighterBins sensors go into the ground — focused on solving bin overflow for municipalities.
Edinburgh Council and Wolverhampton Council deploy BrighterBins across their municipal bin networks.
SUEZ France and SmartEnds begin a multi-year partnership. Smart infrastructure vertical launches.
Quatra deploys BrighterBins sensors across used and fresh cooking oil supply chains in Europe. The liquid supply chain vertical is born.
SmartEnds is recognised by Deloitte as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in EMEA. Berg Insight ranks SmartEnds in the Global Top 10 for smart waste.
SmartEnds launches VisnLine — AI vision cameras for high-accuracy, real-time contamination detection and waste classification.
Google: BrighterBins live on campuses in Singapore and Taiwan.
1,250 bins equipped across central London, with BrighterBins integrated into Veolia’s Echo planning system.
One platform for BrighterBins sensors and VisnLine AI cameras, with monitoring, alerts, routing and reporting.
Explore SmartEnds OS →SmartEnds is live in Belgium, France, Germany, the UK, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the USA, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Taiwan — part of 25+ countries.
Engineering, product, and commercial operations. Founded here in 2017.
Sales, partnerships and deployments across North and South America.
Book a 30-minute demo and see SmartEnds OS running on real deployment data — not a slideshow.
