In early October 2024, several social media accounts supporting U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris shared a copypasta meme alleging that the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, had a financial interest in an app, AcreTrader, that allows foreigners to "snap up real estate deals."
The full text of the copypasta — copy-and-pasted text shared online — read:
Remember: JD Vance gets rich by owning an app (acretrader) that helps investors outside of the United States snap up real estate deals (including many family farms and rental properties) that are then owned by people who have never and will never see those places and who ONLY own those places to obtain money and power in our country.
This is NOT someone we can trust to be looking out for OUR best interests. He betrays us for money.
While this is an imprecise description of the type of land this company brokers — it deals only in agricultural properties — it is true that Vance provided early funding to, and may still be invested in, AcreTrader. The investment was made through Narya Capital, an Ohio-based venture capital fund he founded in 2020 before leaving in December 2022.
There are no indications, at the time of this reporting, that Vance had given up his interest in AcreTrader, but the specific investments behind several of Vance's Narya-related business entities are not publicly disclosed. We reached out to Vance's senate office and to the presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump, and will update our story if they provide us with further information.
What Is AcreTrader?
AcreTrader describes itself as a "farmland real estate investment company offering low minimum, passive farm investments." It allows people to purchase shares in real estate investment trusts as a form of passive income akin to a stock. As described by Charles Schwab:
A Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a security that trades like a stock on the major exchanges and owns — and in most cases operates — income-producing real estate or related assets. Many REITs are registered with the SEC and are publicly traded on a stock exchange. These are known as publicly traded REITs. Others may be registered with the SEC but are not publicly traded. REITs receive special tax considerations and typically offer investors high dividend yields, as well as a liquid method of investing in real estate.
AcreTrader purchases land from, or with, farmers and transfers ownership from the landowner to a private limited liability company. The remaining shares in these properties are then sold to the public. In many cases the former landowners or their tenants may continue working the land, becoming shareholders instead of owners while receiving access to the funding raised by the investors.
When available, shareholders receive a share of the annual profits generated from that agricultural property. The LLC also retains the value of the land, driving the value of the holding. The profits of any sale of the land would be split between shareholders at the time of the sale.
Can Foreigners Invest?
At the time of this reporting, the only requirement for investing with AcreTrader is that an investor be what the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission defines as an accredited investor: someone, in essence, with enough money and/or experience to handle the risk of the investment. There is no citizenship requirement attached to the SEC's definition of qualified investor, and as such foreigners would be allowed to invest with AcreTrader.
This is not, however, the same as owning the land itself. As AcreTrader explains, "you don't own a specific location on the subject property, you do have an ownership in an entity that holds legal title to the land." By the very nature of the investment, as described in the meme, the people buying into the land are generally not involved with visiting the property itself.
In response to our original reporting, a representative of AcreTrader told Snopes that the platform "is only open to U.S. citizens, residents, or U.S.-based entities," and that "the AcreTrader Platform does not permit investments from any individuals or entities that do not satisfy this criteria." This criteria does not prevent foreign citizens, either in the form of legal U.S. residents or foreign-owned U.S.-registered business entities, from investing with AcreTrader.
Does JD Vance Currently Own Any Interest in AcreTrader?
In 2020, Vance created Narya Capital to fund tech startups outside the bubble of Silicon Valley. In 2022, Narya provided seed funding for AcreTrader, as reported by Crunchbase in 2021:
Vance invested up to $65,000 in private investments in AcreTrader during his stint as a venture capitalist, according to his 2022 financial disclosure to the Senate ethics committee.
The investment firm Narya Capital—which Vance launched in 2020 with backing from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel—was a vehicle for these investments, and a key backer in early funding rounds of the farmland startup.
And while Vance is no longer listed as a partner at Narya Capital, according to his 2023 financial disclosure, he appears to still be an investor in the firm—or more technically, multiple legal entities with names including Narya.
Following our original reporting, AcreTrader told Snopes that "Senator Vance was a Partner at Narya, a venture capital firm that invested in AcreTrader's Series B preferred stock funding round in 2021. However, Narya's investment in AcreTrader was led by another partner at the firm. Senator Vance has no involvement in AcreTrader's operations or strategic direction."
Vance's most recent financial disclosure, from August 2024, lists several entities with the name Narya that generate dividends as a source of some of his wealth. Snopes does not have visibility into the investments held by these Narya-named entities and cannot confirm his present level of investment.
In a September 2024 story, the agricultural news outlet Civil Eats cited Lisa Graves, director of an investigative research firm, who suggested Vance likely still holds an investment in the company:
"There's every indication that that investment remains in place," said Lisa Graves, the executive director of True North Research, an investigative research group. She points to how Vance sold off his stock in "Narya Capital Management LLC" in 2023, but that's not the same as the (albeit similarly named) investment vehicles used to invest in AcreTrader.
We reached out to Vance's Senate office to ask about his present interest in AcreTrader. They forwarded us to the Trump campaign, which has not returned our request for comment.
The Bottom Line
Vance invested money in AcreTrader, an app that sells shares of real estate investment trusts. While this process does not sell U.S. land directly to foreigners, it does allow foreigners to invest in companies that own American farmland. Vance's present level of investment in AcreTrader is unclear.