Building Wealth for Working Families in America
Owning a business is for many the most common path to building wealth, but far too few Americans have a realistic way of getting there. Apis & Heritage Capital Partners (A&H) is helping transition companies to fully employee-owned models, preserving jobs and creating intergenerational wealth for Americans while giving workers a stake in their company’s success.
Among the companies A&H has transitioned is Blooming Nursery, which grows high-quality plants for garden centers throughout the Pacific Northwest. In 2025, 125 Blooming employees formed the company's first Employee Stock Ownership Plan Committee — a worker-led group charged with building ownership culture from the inside out. For a workforce that includes many who haven’t had a chance to participate in an ownership role before, that shift in identity and opportunity is no small thing.
The Rockefeller Foundation supports A&H through the Zero Gap Fund, an impact investment portfolio created in partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and its flagship Catalytic Capital Consortium. The fund invested in A&H’s Legacy Fund I to facilitate the acquisition of companies from retiring business owners and transform them into 100% employee-owned businesses.
Apis & Heritage’s model has garnered a lot of attention. Last year they announced an initial close of their Legacy Fund II at $85 million in initial commitments, with the fund’s $250 million target expected to be met in 2026, and received the Skoll Award for Social Innovation.
The Apis & Heritage model is a perfect example of what it looks like to put innovative and replicable finance models to work for people — especially those who have historically been shut out of wealth-building opportunities.
When you become employee-owned that company is not going anywhere. That company is going to stay rooted in its community.
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