Early October 2024, several social media accounts supporting U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris distributed an inaccurate copypasta meme alleging Ohio Sen. JD Vance had financial interests in AcreTrader – an app designed for foreigners to “grab up real estate deals quickly”.
Read: Full copypasta text shared online (also called copy-and-paste text or copypasta ).
Remember: JD Vance made his money through owning an app (acretrader) that assists foreign investors to purchase real estate deals (such as family farms and rental properties) owned by investors outside the U.S. who will never visit these places and only own them to gain money and power within our nation.
This person cannot be trusted to protect our interests; rather he betrays us for money.
Although AcreTrader only brokers agricultural properties, Vance has contributed early funding through Narya Capital – an Ohio-based venture capital fund founded by him before leaving in December 2022 – which may still hold investments in AcreTrader.
As of the time of this reporting, no indication exists of Vance relinquishing his investment in AcreTrader; however, several Narya-related business entities held by him remain secretive and confidential. We reached out to Vance’s Senate Office as well as President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and will provide updates if we receive further details from either source.
What Is AcreTrader? AcreTrader describes itself as an online farmland real estate investment platform offering low minimum, passive farm investments with no minimum purchase requirement and allows people to acquire shares in REITs as passive sources of passive income akin to stocks – described by Charles Schwab:
AcreTrader purchases land from or with farmers and transfers ownership from them directly to a private limited liability company; remaining shares in these properties are then sold off publicly, though in many instances former landowners or their tenants continue working the land while becoming shareholders with access to funds provided by investors.
Shareholders receive their share of annual profits generated from agricultural properties held by an LLC, while its value increases. Any sale profits would then be distributed among shareholders at that time.
Can Foreign Investors Participate?”
At this reporting date, AcreTrader investors only require being classified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as accredited investors – those with enough money and/or experience to bear risk without being unaccredited investors – in order to invest. There was no citizenship restriction attached to SEC’s definition, therefore allowing even non-U.S. nationals the chance to invest with AcreTrader.
However, owning land through investments does not equate to actually owning it itself. AcreTrader notes: you do not own specific locations on a piece of property but do hold shares in an entity which holds legal title to that land.” Furthermore, as described by AcreTrader and illustrated through memes such as this one: investors in such investments typically do not visit it directly themselves.
Does JD Vance Own Any Involvement with AcreTrader? In 2020, Vance established Narya Capital to fund tech startups outside Silicon Valley’s bubble. Narya provided seed capital funding for AcreTrader as reported by Crunchbase 2021:
Vance invested up to $65,000 of his personal funds in AcreTrader during his venture capitalist endeavors, according to his financial disclosure form to the Senate ethics committee in 2022.
Vance created Narya Capital with backing from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in 2020 as an investment vehicle and key backer in early funding rounds of his farmland startup company.
According to his 2023 financial disclosure form, Vance no longer appears on the roster of Narya Capital partners but still invests in various entities with names including Narya.
Vance’s most recent financial disclosure from August 2024 listed several entities with the name Narya that produce dividends as sources of his wealth. Unfortunately, Snopes does not have visibility into these investments held by these Narya-named entities and cannot confirm what level they hold of his investments at present.
Civil Eats ran an article in September 2024 in which Lisa Graves of an investigative research firm speculated that Vance likely still owned investments in his company:
Lisa Graves, executive director of True North Research (an investigative research center), noted: “Every indication suggests this investment remains intact.” As evidence, Graves points to Vance selling off his stake in “Narya Capital Management LLC” in 2023 – although that investment vehicle differed substantially from AcreTrader investments vehicles used at that time.
Vance’s Senate office provided no response when we inquired about his current involvement with AcreTrader; rather they sent our inquiry on to Trump’s campaign who have yet to provide their comments in response to our inquiry.
Vance invested money with AcreTrader, an app which sells shares of real estate investment trusts (REIT). While AcreTrader doesn’t sell directly U.S. land overseas to foreign buyers, it allows foreign investors to purchase stocks owned by American farms via AcreTrader companies that own farmland in America. At present it remains unknown what Vance’s level of investment in AcreTrader might be.
