Blog
Published December 2025
Turning the tide: How we’re reshaping economic opportunity in 2026
As we enter 2026, we stand at a critical economic crossroads defined by two converging systemic risks: extreme wealth inequality and the “Silver Tsunami” of retiring business owners.
Today, the top 10% of households in the U.S. have nearly 70% of all wealth, while the entire bottom 50% holds just 2.5%. This level of concentration and inequity limits economic mobility, erodes household resilience, and leaves millions of working families struggling to build financial security.
In addition, nearly 3 million business owners are approaching retirement, with most businesses at risk of being sold to outside investors or shutting down entirely, taking jobs and local economic anchors with them. This looming transition represents a quiet economic crisis, threatening job loss, local disinvestment and the hollowing out of community-based enterprises.
At Ownership Capital Lab, we recognize the seriousness of these risks—and the significant opportunity they present to reshape our economy so it works for more people. We have a once-in-a-century opportunity to dramatically reshape business ownership. Imagine if, instead of losing the local roots of these businesses, we could transfer them to the very workers who have helped build them, giving them real stake, real security and a real share in the prosperity they produce?
Employee ownership is a meaningful, market-based solution to address these issues. It’s not a new concept, but a proven strategy with more than 50 years of evidence showing how it can transform businesses, create stable jobs and build worker wealth. Yet, despite decades of proof, EO remains dramatically undercapitalized and underutilized.
The missing piece? A well-functioning investment capital market for employee ownership—one that can mobilize the power of the capital markets to drive EO transitions at scale.
Over the past decade, a growing ecosystem of EO-focused funds, lenders and intermediaries has begun to take shape, demonstrating both demand and strong performance. Yet the marketplace remains fragmented and undercapitalized, limiting its ability to meet the scale of opportunity.
By strategically strengthening and unlocking financing, we can move employee ownership investing from a promising niche to a mainstream investment arena.
Our recently launched 2025 Employee Ownership Capital Roadmap is the blueprint for this transformation, and we’re excited to turn this vision into tangible action with you in 2026.
The inaugural 2025 EO Capital Roadmap
Earlier this month, we released the 2025 Employee Ownership Capital Roadmap. Over the last year, we’ve brought together an incredible coalition—150+ investors, fund managers, employee-owners, field leaders, state centers, technical assistance providers, nonprofits and policymakers from within and outside of the EO space—to craft a vision that truly represents where the field is at, and how it can grow.
Our North Star is bold: to mobilize $1.5 billion in employee ownership capital in the next few years and reach $10 billion by 2040. If the EO field, capital allocators, and policymakers work together to advance the strategies laid out in the Roadmap, the field could move far beyond this North Star—reaching breakthrough levels of $3–5B by 2030 and potentially $20–$25B or more by 2040, laying the foundation for a $100 billion⁺ EO investment market beyond that.
The Roadmap introduces the EO Capital Compass—four interconnected strategies to scale employee ownership through the capital markets:
Over the last few weeks, we’ve brought the Roadmap to the public, and have been overwhelmed by the positive response and enthusiasm.
Roadmap preview at SOCAP25
When we previewed the Roadmap at SOCAP25, the room was packed. Over 130 folks registered, and we even had to ask the caterers to bring more food!
Roadmap public launch event
Our Roadmap launch webinar on December 11th continued that momentum. 170 participants registered to dive deep into the Roadmap. In this interactive session, people shared questions, connected with one another, and walked away with clear, actionable takeaways they could apply in their own work to mobilize capital, close critical gaps and advance employee ownership.
We asked webinar attendees to reflect and share powerful Commitments and Asks for support. Some key themes emerged:
- investors looking to develop more robust due diligence tools for employee-owned businesses
- fund managers seeking to expand their networks
- practitioners eager to develop more comprehensive impact measurement frameworks
The launch generated so much excitement. ImpactAlpha featured our work in a recent article exploring how employee ownership funds are challenging traditional private equity models.
And in just a few days since launching, we’ve already seen nearly 100 downloads of the full guide, each one feeling like another vote of confidence in this transformative approach.
Our 2026 Roadmap Roadshow
We’re taking the Roadmap on the road in 2026, and we want you to join us! We’ll be hosting in-person events across 4-6 locations across the United States, and virtual events as well.
These aren’t your typical conferences. Think of them as collaborative workshops where we’ll share stories, break down barriers, and dream big together about the ways we can coordinate actions that will move the employee ownership capital marketplace from niche to mainstream.
We’re looking for hosts, partners and community collaborators who can help us put together and host these events and are as excited about employee ownership as we are.
Interested in being part of this journey? Check out our Roadshow Interest survey and help us make this happen!
The EO Fund Accelerator: A 2026 flagship initiative
As part of the Roadmap process, we heard loud and clear from the 150+ people engaged in our Roadmap process: the employee ownership ecosystem needs robust infrastructure. Ownership Capital Lab, along with our partners at Catalyze, is launching the EO Fund Accelerator in 2026 as our response to that call.
At its core, the Accelerator is a dedicated support system for the next generation of employee ownership fund managers. By supporting emerging EO funds, we’re:
- Providing a scalable path to wealth-building for low-income, BIPOC, women, and rural workers
- Preserving and rooting businesses locally, sustaining jobs and regional economies
- Shrinking racial, gender and geographic wealth gaps while leveraging capital markets for inclusive ownership
Our goals for the EO Fund Accelerator’s first year are ambitious and focused:
- Support 8 employee ownership funds
- Engage 150+ impact investors
- Position hundreds of frontline workers to become business owners
The Accelerator will provide targeted support including fundraising strategies, operational guidance, storytelling support, and connections to potential investors. We’re launching the EO Fund Accelerator not just to support individual funds, but to build the professional infrastructure that will help employee ownership move from the margins to the mainstream.
And we’re inviting you to be part of this. Whether through financial support, mentorship, professional connections or sharing your expertise—there are countless ways to help these funds succeed.
You can support our work to reshape our economy so it works for everyone by:
1. Engaging in the 2026 EO Roadmap Roadshow
We are looking for hosts, partners, and collaborators for these in person and virtual events. If you want to partner with us, please fill out the 2026 Roadmap Roadshow partnership & collaboration survey.
2. Making a donation directly or support our work through your DAF
Make a general donation: Every contribution matters. Make a donation of any size to power Ownership Capital Lab’s work in 2026 and help us continue building the ecosystem for employee ownership.
Make a leadership gift to support the Accelerator: Grantmakers and major donors are invited to support our EO Fund Accelerator with a donation of $25,000 and above, which will directly support our year-one budget, helping us create a scalable path to worker ownership and economic justice.