Firm Overview

Apis & Heritage buys great companies from retiring owners that have significant workforces of color and low income workers and converts them into 100% employee-owned businesses, thereby empowering and building wealth for a group of workers so often left behind while generating attractive risk-adjusted returns for our investors.

Thousands of businesses will be sold by baby boomer founders over the next decade. A&H helps owners sell their enterprise to their workers while receiving a fair financial exit and anchoring the founder’s legacy through what we call "Employee Led Buy Outs" (ELBOs). A&H solves the red tape and financing hurdles for sellers that have inhibited them from selling their businesses to their employees. Post-investment, A&H creates value through better governance and by helping instill an "ownership culture” at the enterprise, which improves operations and margins (proved by 40 years of data). ESOPs also improve retention in tight labor markets and resilience during downturns. Because 100% ESOP-owned companies pay no Federal and usually no State tax, cash flow grows, retiring the leveraged transaction quickly and enhancing Enterprise Value. A&H’s ELBOs provide investors with low-risk credit income and upside through warrants and most important, create meaningful wealth for employee-owners over time.

First, there is not a large "peer group" using ESOPs as the exit strategy for private company purchases (what we call the ELBO model). While there are a handful, none is focused on racial equity like we are; we expressly target companies with large workforces of color and low income workers, so that the benefits of employee-ownership will be shared disproportionately with workers who historically have been left behind (albeit all workers benefit). We are also unusual in that our founding partners have blended backgrounds in high finance, small business management and cross-sector investment expertise, which makes us uniquely suited to executing our ELBO strategy across the country. Finally, as a firm whose four out of 5 founding partners are people of color, we are in the too-small universe of diverse fund managers. In sum, we believe our expertise and backgrounds give us a tremendous advantage to implement our strategy.