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, 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.