Founded in 2020, Galway Sustainable Capital (Galway) invests in companies, projects, and assets that promote environmental and social resilience. “We’re backed by institutional investors like Macquarie Asset Management and Oaktree Capital,” says Galway CEO, Jennifer von Bismarck. “We take that capital and invest it in teams that are driving the transition toward greater sustainability.”

Those investments range from solar projects in the 2–50 megawatt range to a company that fishes the Mississippi for Asian carp, a locally invasive species.

“We’re not a fund,” von Bismarck says. “We’re a financial institution. We’re helping grow the businesses that will serve as the foundations of a sustainable economy. To do that, we must be sustainable ourselves. We must lead the way, using our own resources efficiently. That’s why we chose BILL for our financial operations.”

“We’re helping grow the businesses that will serve as the foundations of a sustainable economy. To do that, we must be sustainable ourselves. We must lead the way, using our own resources efficiently. That’s why we chose BILL for our financial operations.”

The challenge: Model sustainable ops and simplify sustainability reporting 

Sustainability starts locally. For Galway, that meant starting at home. “We needed to walk the walk,” says Sarene Marshall, Galway’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “We needed to implement smart systems—efficient and effective. Faster, cleaner, clearer and with a good audit trail to prove value. We were looking for solutions that could do those things right from the start.”

Von Bismarck adds, “As one of the founders of the company, I remember the beginning, before we found BILL.  I had to be hands-on with every aspect of the business. As soon as we started using BILL, we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. It saved us a lot of time.”

The company was founded in 2020 and grew from three people to 30 in three years. This growth extends beyond personnel — Galway’s assets under management have increased from $25M to over $650M.

“We’re modeling business growth for our portfolio of investment projects and companies, showing them what’s possible,” Marshall says. “It’s a big issue for small businesses. How do you manage your resources and position yourself for growth? Better yet, how do you do that efficiently and sustainably?”

Part of the answer is that if you want to manage sustainability, you need to measure it. “We capture six outcome areas—environmental and social benefits our companies and projects generate and the positive impacts they have in their communities,” von Bismarck says. 

The solution: BILL Accounts Payable

To handle such rapid growth, Galway needed systems that could deliver extreme scalability while remaining consistent with its core values and corporate culture. For its financial operations, the team chose BILL.

“The accounting shop is lean,” says Nishil Patel, Vice President Controller for Galway. “And our team values flexibility and work-life balance. When I started, I had just two weeks to learn the entire system so I could take over the day-to-day operations before our accounting manager went on leave. Thankfully, accounts payable was running through BILL and I found it very easy to pick up.”

Patel found BILL so easy to use that he did not have to postpone a vacation. “Our family had a pre-planned trip and I didn’t want to delay the monthly close,” Patel remembers. “Thanks to BILL, I was able to make that happen through the mobile app without having to open my laptop. The difference between BILL’s automation platform and the traditional AP process was night and day. I came from a world of weekly AP runs, cutting and signing checks. Old-school accounting shops with filing cabinets full of hard-copy invoices. When it came time for an audit, someone had to physically pull everything. It just took a ton of time.”

“I came in at the tail end of an audit, completely new to BILL, and I was able to close out the audit without any trouble at all. The amount of time and paper BILL saves me has been wonderful,” Patel adds.

“BILL has been a tremendous partner for us,” adds von Bismarck. “We are happy to recommend it to our portfolio companies. It’s fast and effective, and it makes it easy for us and them to see their spending, find information needed to assess our carbon footprints, and track trends over time.”

“BILL has been a tremendous partner for us. We are happy to recommend it to our portfolio companies. It’s fast and effective, and it makes it easy for us and them to see their spending, find information needed to assess our carbon footprints, and track trends over time.”

The integration: NetSuite

Patel enjoys the convenience of a seamless NetSuite integration too. “We use Oracle NetSuite as our general ledger and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). It's nice to go in the ledger, if you're researching something, and hop straight from there into BILL to pull what you need. Whether it's for an audit or just for investigative purposes, it’s extremely convenient.”

“We use Oracle NetSuite as our general ledger and ERP. It's nice to go in the ledger, if you're researching something, and hop straight from there into BILL to pull what you need. Whether it's for an audit or just for investigative purposes, it’s extremely convenient.”

Summary: Efficient, effective, and sustainable financial systems

“We’re always investing in better systems,” von Bismarck says. “To make the most efficient use of our resources. To keep growing our business. To push higher returns for our investors and higher impacts for a more sustainable future. When it comes to Accounts Payable (AP)—for us and the companies we invest in—BILL helps us do all those things.”