Investing in Employee Ownership: Financing Conversion through a Private Equity Fund Model

This report explores the viability of a novel fund model that combines a private equity + ESOP structure, already in existence, to shepherd companies to employee ownership while centering workers, especially people of color and low-wage workers from marginalized communities. As such, it provides both a model for the conversion process at scale with non-extractive finance, and impact recommendations and guardrails to ensure that benefits accrue first and foremost to workers.