Kildare start-up completes Bord na Móna programme promoting climate-oriented businesses

ABOVE:  Bord na Móna Chief Executive, Tom Donnellan and the nine Accelerate Green START participants; EVHACS, Airryzen, ReBOT, IFF Plastics, GlowTire, Retrokit, Biota, EVE Mobility, Feighery’s Farm Beetroot Juice. Accelerate Green Start aims to embrace and support a wider cohort of innovative, climate-oriented businesses.

EVHACS, a start-up based in Clane, Co. Kildare, has successfully completed Bord na Móna’s Accelerate Green START programme.

The programme, delivered in conjunction with Resolve Partners, is dedicated to supporting companies who are leading the response to climate action and sustainability.  

EVHACS provides HVAC systems that integrate EV charging and brings together a skilled-team advanced in engineering and technology. 

The Kildare based company was one of nine participants in a six-week programme covering key areas including customer discovery, market mapping, network development, the funding ecosystem, preparation for investment and pitching. The programme was delivered through a blend of online and in-person workshops as well as individual mentoring at Bord na Móna’s Accelerate Green Hub, in Boora, Co. Offaly. 

The programme culminated in a pitch event at Bord na Móna’s headquarters where participants presented their business ideas to a panel of experts which included Tom Donnellan, CEO of Bord na Móna, Sonya Mallon, Bord na Móna’s Company Secretary and John Carrigan, Investment Director at The Yield Lab, an accelerator program that invests in and mentors early-stage companies in the agriculture sector. 

The START programme was established as a sister programme to Bord na Móna’s annual Accelerate Green Programme in order to support earlier stage businesses to scale their sustainable solutions. It enables participants to meet customers, mentors and guest speakers who provide practical industry insights and help guide the business and investable proposition of their companies.  

Jeff Ahearne, CEO of EVHACS said “Accelerate Green have been on our radar for nearly two years. I trust the team impeccably and their advice- we applied and it was a great call, and brilliant to be accepted. The most beneficial thing about the START process was taking the time out to reevaluate the steps necessary to grow your business. Sometimes we focus too much on the day to day, but there are other ways and directions to follow and this course outlines them for you”.  

 Tom Donnellan, CEO of Bord na Móna, congratulating the programme’s latest successful cohort said: “The latest round of graduates of the Accelerate Green START programme are directly representative of the type of innovation in sustainability that this project was designed to support and enable. We were extremely impressed by the ambition of the ideas that were presented. I believe that the participants have benefited from the knowledge sharing and mentorship which the programme provides and they are well placed to continue to grow their ideas and businesses moving forward. Our hope is that graduates of the START programme will continue to grow their businesses and create sustainable jobs while enabling a low-carbon economy”