Helping Workers Build Wealth through Employee-Owned Enterprises

Overview

Founded in 2021, Apis & Heritage (A&H) Capital Partners is a Black-led investment firm with a mission to fight wealth inequality through employee-owned businesses.

A $4 million equity investment in Apis & Heritage’s Legacy Fund II is helping transition more than 10 privately held companies with workforces primarily comprised of people with low and moderate incomes into employee-owned enterprises through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). By helping to transition businesses to ESOPs, A&H aims to create greater wealth, job satisfaction and security, empower workers, and establish more resilient and independent local enterprises.  

This investment follows the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s 2022 $4 million investment in Apis & Heritage Legacy Fund I, which is similarly a private credit fund that seeks to tackle the wealth gap and improve workplace outcomes for employees with low and moderate incomes.

Learn more: www.apisheritage.com

Challenge

Growing wealth inequality stems in part from existing barriers for people with low incomes to acquire assets such as homes or businesses or access capital, harming both households and communities. Owning a home or business is one of the most reliable ways of building—and passing along—wealth, which is linked to health and wellbeing. The effects of wealth inequality are multigenerational as parents’ wealth shapes their children’s educational, economic, and social opportunities. At least one in 10 U.S. households have zero or negative wealth, meaning they have no assets or owe more money than they have.

Transitioning companies to worker ownership can help employees benefit from the profits of successful businesses and make entrepreneurship possible for people of all backgrounds. 

Solution

A&H buys profitable companies from private owners and converts them into employee-owned businesses through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), giving employees equity in the company and ensuring that they benefit from its success. The deferred tax benefits of ESOPs can increase a company’s cash flow and allow it to pay back the purchase loan from A&H.  

Employee ownership allows them to build wealth. As owners, most employees also report higher job satisfaction. Communities benefit from local entrepreneurship through more stable employment and income staying in local economies. Research shows that employee-owned businesses outperform regular businesses, withstand economic downturns more effectively, and are more profitable. 

A&H Legacy Fund II focuses on real economy industries such as landscaping, commercial cleaning, mechanical contracting (HVAC, plumbing), waste hauling, nursing care, and food processing. These are attractive—especially during times of economic uncertainty—because they tend to have low capital expenditures and low risk of technology-related disruptions; are recession-resistant, noncyclical industries; and have recurring revenues. 

In the Spotlight

For nearly 50 years, B and B Maintenance has been providing cleaning and facility services to government agencies, schools, healthcare systems, and other commercial clients across 20 states. In late 2025, the company entered a new chapter: Apis & Heritage financed an employee-led buyout that made all of B and B’s workers owners through an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP.

This was Apis & Heritage’s largest deal to date by workforce size, and more than doubled the number of worker-owners across its portfolio, which previously included about 400 employee-owners at five companies. 

Apis & Heritage is working closely with B and B’s leadership and new employee-owners to build a strong ownership culture focused on efficiency, resilience, and respect. B and B is part of Apis & Heritage’s first $58.1 million fund.

Impact Goals

• Facilitate the conversion of approximately 10–15 profitable small and medium‑sized enterprises to full or partial employee ownership through ESOP transactions, supporting long‑term business continuity and workforce stability.
• Expand employee ownership across the portfolio to 2,500+ workers, providing broad‑based participation in enterprise value creation.
• Ensure that at least 50% of aggregate employees across the portfolio are workers with low and moderate incomes, enabling wealth‑building opportunities for populations historically excluded from ownership.