ImpactAlpha, September 13 — Chicago-based Impact Engine is investing in employee-owned firms as a means to bridging wealth gaps (for context, see “These 12 impact funds are catalyzing transitions to employee ownership”).
With Charlotte-based Mosaic Capital Partners, it invested in Zero Waste’s employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, to “convert company ownership 100% into the hands of all employees at no cost,” wrote Impact Engine’s Priya Parrish.
Zero Waste provides waste management services for U.S.-based manufacturing companies. More than 90% of its employees are Black, Indigenous and other people of color with low to middle incomes.
Mission-driven investors
Impact Engine invested via Mosaic’s private equity employee-ownership fund. It believes the fund “will generate paradigm-based impact by setting an example for other private equity and credit investors to invest this way,” wrote Parrish.
Other partners in the deal include Lafayette Square and Morgan Stanley Private Credit.
