Case Study

How Blue Earth Capital built an entire finance function at speed

With the EY organization, the impact investor built a full-scope finance function in less than six months as it rapidly scaled.

1

The better the question

When finance must scale at speed, how do you keep impact at the center?

Blue Earth Capital needed to build a finance function while keeping its scarce resources focused on impact and growth.

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Blue Earth Capital is a global investment firm owned by the Blue Earth Foundation that, in 2022, transitioned from Partners Group to an independent operating structure.

“In our early years,” says Jenna Espley-Jones, Vice President of Finance at Blue Earth Capital, “we benefitted from strong operational support from Partners Group – everything from investment services to HR, finance and tax.”

With US$ 1.7b in assets under management, the firm makes targeted investments on behalf of its clients and investment vehicles across emerging and developed markets, aiming for measurable impact alongside attractive financial returns.

Operating profits are reinvested by the Blue Earth Foundation into deep impact ventures. These mission-driven investments are designed to generate measurable, long-term environmental and social outcomes alongside sustainable financial returns, acting as an impact multiplier. These investments support a range of initiatives, from green hydrogen projects, expanded access to high-quality and affordable healthcare and education, through to financial products that help lower-income consumers and small business owners access affordable essential services.

Like many fast-growing mid-sized companies, Blue Earth Capital faced the threefold challenge of scaling at speed while keeping costs under control and maintaining service quality. In effect, the firm had to establish a fully functioning finance organization in under six months which had to be cost-effective, scalable and meet Blue Earth Capital's demanding quality standards.

Furthermore, as an impact investor, trust and compliance were non-negotiable. From day one, Blue Earth Capital needed accurate data, reliable controls and specialized support across multiple jurisdictions.

The challenges of building up functions and structures from scratch within tight timelines is a familiar hurdle for fast-scaling companies. For Blue Earth Capital, this was compounded by its purpose-driven mission: “Every resource – time and budget – needed to go toward impact and growth, not a heavy internal build-out,” says Espley-Jones.

Every resource – time and budget – needed to go toward impact and growth, not a heavy internal build-out.

Jenna Espley-Jones

Vice President of Finance, Blue Earth Capital

staff meet at the Blue Earth Capital headquarters

2

The better the answer

Drawing on scalable, plug-and-play finance and tax support

To create its own finance function, Blue Earth Capital drew on finance infrastructure provided by EY including technology, talent and processes.

The challenges that Blue Earth Capital faced in setting up its own finance function are not unique to investment firms. To address them, Blue Earth Capital approached EY and decided to draw on its Finance Managed Services and their SME Center of Excellence (COE), which is designed to meet the needs of high-growth companies like Blue Earth Capital and to help them build, transform, and run their finance function, unlocking value and creating enterprise-wide growth. The COE covers the end-to-end finance process, from transaction processing and management reporting to regulatory filings and audit readiness. In the first few weeks of the project, EY teams conducted a gap-fit analysis and recommended solutions to support rapid data migration and onboarding while avoiding a lengthy system implementation: that confirmed the preconfigured enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and a collaboration with the EY Finance Managed Services team.

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The setup of the new finance function was enabled through pre-configured technology, supported by standardized processes, and executed by a team that was fluent in both. Drawing on a global network of cross-domain EY professionals, local specifics, such as statutory and tax requirements, were covered by country specialists. This combination gave the team confidence that core finance activities were being handled consistently, met local regulatory requirements, and produced reliable, accurate reporting, without adding operational cost or complexity internally.

For the Blue Earth Capital team, the benefits were immediately evident. In effect, they were able to adopt a plug-and-play solution, with a level of support customized to meet the needs of their business as it grew. The firm gained access to specialized resources without the cost and complexity of establishing the required finance infrastructure itself but with the peace of mind that it could rely on high-quality reporting and regulatory compliance.

The managed services solutions provided by the EY organization is what Liam Keys, EY Finance Lead on the Blue Earth Capital engagement, calls “an entire finance function in a box.” As he puts it: “We make those investments in technology and process, so our clients don’t have to.”

We make those investments in technology, resources and process, so our clients don’t have to.

Liam Keys

Partner, Global Compliance and Reporting, EY Tax Consultants

staff inside the offices of Blue Earth Capital

3

The better the world works

Scaled finance operations, customizable service delivery

Today, there is a resilient, scalable finance function that supports the firm’s mission and growth.

Three years after the start of its collaboration with EY, Blue Earth Capital looks back on a successful transformation journey. While the firm was confident from the outset that EY teams had the technology, processes and people to deliver, Espley-Jones explains that there were initial questions to work through. At the beginning, the team wanted to be sure there would be a strong cultural fit, that EY would understand the specific nuances of Blue Earth Capital’s business, and that the engagement would remain transparent, without unexpected scope expansion or hidden costs.

“Those concerns have fallen away,” she says. “We have found a strong cultural alignment – integrity and candor are important to us at Blue Earth Capital, and we see that reflected in the EY team. I deal with the central team weekly, and I see them in a mode of continuous improvement and providing valuable insights.” With EY as a trusted partner, Blue Earth Capital’s finance team scaled its capabilities within an ambitious timeline, enabling the finance function to support the company’s continued growth.

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As the engagement matured, the focus moved beyond stabilizing the finance function to building a collaborative way of working grounded in accountability and continuous improvement. According to Keys, this meant delivering against commitments and taking ownership when challenges arose, using them as opportunities to strengthen the operating model.

Simona Balinskaite, EY Global Engagement Lead on the Blue Earth Capital engagement, emphasizes that collaboration played a central role in this progress. She notes that both teams invested time in understanding how the other worked, creating a shared culture of engagement and trust. As she puts it, “success also comes from collaboration.” This mutual understanding helped foster a motivated team on both sides and reinforced a strong sense of shared ownership for outcomes.

Looking ahead, the focus is on continued optimization and the ability to scale capacity as needed. Blue Earth Capital’s leadership team values this flexibility as a core strength of the EY approach, giving them the confidence that comes from knowing they can access an array of add-on managed services solutions as and when they need them. “With EY, we gain specialist expertise, scalable capacity, and best practice processes that keep finance a strategic enabler of growth and impact at Blue Earth Capital,” says Espley-Jones.

With EY, we gain specialist expertise, scalable capacity, and best practice processes that keep finance a strategic enabler of growth and impact at Blue Earth Capital.

Jenna Espley-Jones

Vice President of Finance, Blue Earth Capital

The ability to deploy capital efficiently, transparently and at scale is critical to Blue Earth Capital’s efforts to deliver real-world outcomes through targeted investments. A stable finance platform gives Blue Earth Capital the necessary operational backbone to continue its mission of making a world of difference.

Related topics

Managed services

Financial services

Wealth & Asset Management

The team

Liam Keys

Partner, Global Compliance and Reporting, EY Tax Consultants

Finance transformation leader. Passionate about building strong teams. Sports enthusiast. Lifelong learner. Proud father of two.

Brussels, Belgium

Kathy Denardo

EY Americas Accounting Compliance and Reporting Leader

Transformation leader. Passionate about lifelong learning, travel and the arts.

Grandview Heights, OH, United States

Chris Platteeuw

EY Europe West Managed Services Leader

Drives innovation through Managed Services. Passionate about history and culture. Father of three daughters.

Diegem, Belgium

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