Welcome to the Transform Finance database of financing vehicles for Alternative Ownership Enterprises (AOEs) — firms that significantly shift economic value and decision-making power toward the non-investor stakeholders they impact, such as workers, producers, consumers, community members, or even a non-financial purpose. Employee ownership is the most active area of financing, but the database also includes financing for all cooperatives, steward ownership, and other models.
This database aims to provide a starting point for investors seeking funds to back, and for advisors and businesses seeking capital for transactions.
This airtable database includes filter, group, sort, and search functions, to help you indentify the information you need. The full dataset can also be downloaded as a CSV file.
Filters for asset owners
- Fundraising status indicates where capital can currently be deployed — whether a vehicle is currently raising, raising as an evergreen fund, fully raised, or fully deployed.
- Geographic focus narrows the field to a given mandate, ranging from nation-wide to a single region or city, across North America and Europe.
- Target return for investors (IRR), where shared, signals where a vehicle sits on the spectrum from catalytic to market-rate.
Filters for advisors, technical assistance providers, and businesses seeking capital
- AOE model(s) financed lists which ownership models a vehicle invests in including ESOPs, worker cooperatives, EOTs, broad-based employee equity, other cooperatives, and steward ownership. Because employee ownership is the most active part of the field, these models share an "EO:" prefix.
- Structure helps further: banks and credit unions are typical providers of senior debt for employee-ownership transactions, independent sponsors raise capital deal by deal, and conglomerates and holding companies grow by acquiring and converting businesses.
- Geographic focus helps align with financing vehicles operating where you are located.
For both, the Other investment(s) column shows how dedicated a vehicle is to alternative ownership enterprises. A blank means it invests exclusively in AOEs; entries — community-owned real estate, social enterprises, nonprofits, or other businesses — point to a broader mandate.
For more information about AOEs and the models described above, see our report: “Alternative Ownership Enterprises: An Introduction For Mission-Oriented Investors”
The information contained is based on desk research, with efforts made to validate data with investment teams where possible. Some data is not available or shared publicly. In addition, there are likely to be errors and omissions.
The information provided in this database is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
Spot an error, or want to suggest a fund? Email info@transformfinance.org so we can keep improving the resource.
