Arkansas Global Connect, formed in Conway in 2021 to arrange legal foreign labor for employers in the United States, has been acquired by BDV Solutions of Greenville, South Carolina.

The two companies announced the purchase on Wednesday. The value of the cash and equity deal, which closed on Tuesday, was not revealed.

Dana Deree, CEO of AGC and one of its founders, will remain with BDV Solutions as vice president for seasonal workforce. AGC currently employs 11, three in Arkansas and the rest in Honduras, and all of them will continue working for BDV.

Deree spent 20 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, ultimately as consul general in Honduras, where he helped improve the employer-seasonal worker process. That experience led him and three others to invest $50,000 each to found AGC with the mission of providing American employers with an efficient pipeline of reliable, legal seasonal workers from abroad while opening a door of economic opportunity for job seekers.

“I’ll always be proud of the AGC team, which has met a tremendous need in the U.S. economy, helped keep prices down for consumers and strengthened the food chain while providing good-paying, legal opportunities for foreign nationals who can better provide for their families while building a hopeful future in their home communities,” Deree said in a news release.

BDV shares AGC’s “vision for acting ethically and in the best interest of both workers and employers,” he said.

In two and a half years, AGC placed seasonal workers with more than 200 employers in more than 30 states, Deree said. And while the company has been profitable from its first year, the business plan did not turn out to be what he and his partners expected. Instead of placing mainly farm workers with H-2A agricultural visas, AGC has mainly recruited and placed non-agricultural seasonal workers using the H-2B visa program, which the Biden administration expanded in the face of widespread worker shortages.

“Our logo is farm fields because I thought we would do 98% farm workers because there would not be enough H-2Bs available,” Deree said. “Instead, we’ve been so busy with H-2Bs that AGC has done very little farm labor.”