Accelerating Appalachia is the world’s first nature-based business accelerator, connecting innovative businesses, investors and mentors aligned with people, place and prosperity.

Appalachia is a world HUB for sustainable businesses, food, energy, agriculture, climate and community resilience, so establishing the world’s first nature-based accelerator to support these innovators was the natural next step.

We attract and scale high-impact, seed-stage businesses in the following sectors:

• Sustainable Food
• Farming
• Clean Energy
• Forests
• Fiber/ Textiles
• Green Building
• Craft Brewing/ Distilling
• Nutraceuticals/integrative medicine
• other innovative triple bottom-line businesses with special consideration for innovators and entrepreneurs from marginalized populations.

Accelerating Appalachia is responding to success and growing demand:

• Entrepreneurs – 100+ businesses applied to our inaugural session in 2013, 5 of 10 in final cohort received investment, $500,000 received across businesses seeking investment
• Investors/Mentors – More than 40 participated in our inaugural session, in-kind support of $1.5m, development of fund for small to medium investments from individuals in Appalachia and around the world
• Communities – More than 30 jobs created, at least 5 Appalachian communities seeking our services in 4 states after just one year
• Youth/Students – Currently we are working with two Appalachian universities and several more higher education institutions are interested in working with ACAP
• Women – 75% of the accelerator applicants were women-led businesses
• Media – Great coverage from Bloomberg Businessweek, Capital Institute, Upstart Biz Journal, Triple Pundit and others