A former civil engineer turned founder, Brian Moloney launched StormHarvester after spotting outdated systems in wastewater management; the Belfast company now uses ai and live sensor feeds to predict and prevent sewage incidents and was recognised by the 2026 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Ireland programme.
When career setbacks pushed Brian Moloney to leave Dublin, what began as survival and tinkering evolved into a fast-growing technology company headquartered in Belfast. After losing an engineering role in the economic downturn, Brian relocated and eventually discovered a persistent problem in wastewater operations: many utilities relied on legacy processes with limited data insight.
That observation inspired a practical response that started small and, over time, scaled into an international platform.
StormHarvester now combines artificial intelligence with live feeds from thousands of underground sensors to give utilities early warning of failures, blockages and pollution risks.
The product focuses on prediction and prevention rather than reactive fixes, aiming to protect communities and reduce environmental harm.
Origins: adversity, field experience and a hobby that became a product
Brian’s route to entrepreneurship was not linear. After leaving Ireland he spent time in Australia working in the wastewater and drainage sector, where practical exposure to network behaviour revealed large gaps in monitoring and analytics.
With limited resources, he began writing software and testing simple prototypes—what he describes as a hobbyist phase that bridged his engineering training and product thinking.
This period combined hands-on problem solving with iterative development: short experiments in the field, rapid learning from sensor outputs and gradual refinement of algorithms. Those early experiments produced the first elements of what would become StormHarvester’s analytics core.
Building the company in Belfast: partnerships and scaling
Returning to Northern Ireland, Brian connected with local institutions to transform prototypes into a business. Collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast provided technical validation, while support from Invest NI and Techstart Ventures offered the financial and advisory scaffolding to launch formally. That early ecosystem support accelerated product development and helped attract initial commercial trials.
First commercial validation
StormHarvester’s breakthrough came when it won a trial with a UK water company, proving the solution at scale. The successful deployment demonstrated the platform’s ability to process high volumes of sensor data and deliver actionable alerts, moving the company from proof-of-concept to commercially viable solution. That trial opened doors to further contracts across the UK and later into Australia and New Zealand.
Why Belfast remained the base
Despite growing internationally, Brian chose to keep the company rooted in Belfast. He cites the region’s skilled graduates, strong work ethic and a supportive local network as key reasons. For him, there is no barrier to building a global technology company outside traditional tech hubs: the combination of talent and local backing made Northern Ireland a viable and strategic headquarters.
Technology and impact: how StormHarvester protects communities
At the heart of StormHarvester is an integrated system that ingests live telemetry from in-pipe sensors and applies machine learning models to detect anomalies. The platform sends early warnings to operators so they can intervene before minor disturbances escalate into flooding or contamination events. The value proposition is both operational efficiency and direct public benefit—preventing disruption to homes and businesses as well as environmental damage.
According to the company, the system averted thousands of incidents in the UK alone in a single year, a statistic the team cites not to celebrate revenue but to highlight the social and environmental purpose behind the technology. The combination of real-time monitoring, predictive alerts and coordinated response workflows differentiates the product from traditional, reactive maintenance approaches.
Product features that matter
Key elements that utilities rely on include continuous sensor telemetry, cloud-based processing, automated alerting and operator dashboards that translate complex signals into clear actions. The platform emphasises resilience: it integrates with existing infrastructure and scales to cover large networks without requiring wholesale replacement of hardware.
Recognition, learning and the road ahead
Brian’s selection for the 2026 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Ireland programme acknowledged StormHarvester’s rapid expansion and impact. Participation in the EY cohort offered peer learning, leadership sessions and international networking opportunities—Brian attended a CEO retreat in Toronto where cross-sector conversations reinforced common leadership challenges and growth strategies.
For aspiring entrepreneurs he offers a succinct piece of advice: if you have an idea, act on it. That mentality—combining field insight, practical testing and a willingness to take risks—underpins StormHarvester’s trajectory from a one-person endeavour to a team of more than 120 across the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, with planned expansion into North America.
To learn more about the company and its approach to preventing sewage flooding with data-driven intelligence, visit the official website or contact the StormHarvester team for case studies and technical overviews.
