A B O U T A L A N / E n t r e p r e n e u r
Co-founder of Exergyn, Alan was CEO for over 8 years. Today, he has a nominee on the Board, retains a sizeable stake in the company and has regular strategy meetings with the majority shareholders.
Total grants, equity, sweat equity & development funds raised – €50 million+.
Exergyn’s refrigerant-free heat pump and emission-free engine are set to have a significant impact on reducing global carbon emissions. See more info on Exergyn below.
Alan’s previous ventures include:
- Designing & producing an ergonomic
plug for which he raised investment - Designing & delivering a negotiation
course to corporates - Self-publishing a kids’ novel, becoming a bestseller in Ireland and winning a two-book deal from a major publisher as a result
- Setting up a brick factory in a township in South Africa, joint venturing with local business leaders & a major South African conglomerate
- Advising/helping various early-stage & established companies.
Alan’s first job was with Goldman Sachs in London. When he left, he was intent on becoming an entrepreneur. Since then. he’s worked for his own businesses, apart from one year working in private equity – which allowed him to see the entrepreneurial challenge from the other side of the table.
Exergyn has developed:
- a refrigerant-free heat pump, and
- an engine that runs on hot water (the first new class of heat-engine since the diesel engine was invented in 1893).
The potential carbon savings from the heat pump are truly enormous – perhaps unsurprising when you consider that The Rocky Mountain Institute concluded in 2017 that refrigerants are the “Number One problem” affecting climate change.
Exergyn’s solid-state heat pump could replace refrigerants entirely in air-conditioning systems and refrigeration. It could also do away with fossil-fuel boilers. And could be employed in electric vehicles.
Exergyn is working with major multinationals to bring its heat pump to market.
And the company’s heat engine could revolutionise other markets, such as geothermal; and could have a role to play in solar applications and energy storage solutions.
The company has:
- Raised over €50m
- Produced hundreds of patents
- Developed a world-class technical team, and
- Established facilities in Ireland, the UK and the Czech Republic.
Raising money in the early days was very difficult. People thought the company’s idea was crazy. Shape memory alloy (SMA) is the material at the heart of Exergyn’s technology; surely, people told us, if SMA could be used commercially as Exergyn proposed, then NASA would’ve done it already!
Alan sourced over 120 private investors and came up with a structure that gave them the confidence to invest on multiple occasions from Year 0 to Year 8, without unduly diluting the founders. Alan also led the drive that won (i) a grant of €2.5 million from Horizon 2020 and (ii) multiple other grants; and he led the charge to create joint ventures with major multinationals and raise tens of millions of euro in equity financing.