When you’re growing fast, the last thing you can afford is a finance function that can’t keep up – or worse, one that doesn’t exist yet.
Quick Snapshot:
Client & Industry: Renewable Energy
Challenge: No finance function – people, processes or systems
Engagement: Finance function build, merger integration, AI platform
implementation
Key Outcome: 20–30% projected efficiency saving; full contract & spend
visibility
The Client:
This renewable energy sector is a fast growing business and like many founder-led companies scaling quickly, they reached a point where the business had outpaced its internal infrastructure – particularly in finance. They had revenue, growth, and ambition. What they didn’t have was the financial backbone to support it.
Challenges Faced:
When the client first engaged Lantern Partners, they were starting from zero when it came to their finance function. There were no formal finance processes, no systems, and no team in place to manage what had become a complex, expanding operation.
Compounding the challenge, the client was also navigating an internal merger – two distinct businesses operating under the same umbrella, each with different operational models and finance functions, one of which had been outsourced to a third party. The two entities needed to be brought together into a single, coherent structure.
On top of that, the business was managing large contracts entirely manually – through emails and spreadsheets – with no visibility over who owned what, what had been approved, or what had been paid.
Why they needed help:
The leadership knew they needed to build something from the ground up, but they didn’t have the internal expertise to design and implement a finance function at the pace the business required. They needed a senior finance partner who could come in, assess the full picture, and move quickly – not a future hire, but a strategic resource available right now.
Lantern Partners Solution:
Lantern Partners tackled the challenges across three interconnected workstreams:
- Building the finance function from scratch. This wasn’t just about setting up a chart of accounts. Lantern Partners designed the entire finance infrastructure – defining the right systems for the clients growth stage, building out reporting frameworks, and leading the recruitment strategy. That included writing job descriptions, defining the roles needed, and hiring the right people to run finance day-to-day.
- Leading the merger integration. With two operationally different businesses to bring together, Lantern Partners managed the finance function integration end-to-end – rationalising processes, consolidating reporting, and ensuring a clean structural outcome from what was a complex merger situation.
- Implementing an AI-powered contract and spend management platform. Manual contract management was creating blind spots across the business. Lantern Partners scoped and deployed an AI platform to manage the full contract lifecycle – from initial request through to payment – giving the client complete visibility and control over its commitments and spend.
What was the impact on the business:
The transformation was significant across both structure and efficiency. For the first time, the leadership had a real finance function – with the right people, the right systems, and the right processes aligned to where the business was heading.
The AI platform alone is projected to deliver a 20–30% reduction in manual finance administration. By automating invoice processing and digitising contract management, the business removed the need for additional bookkeeping headcount and freed up capacity to invest in more strategic finance capability instead.
Just as importantly, the business now has controls in place. Every contract, every approval, every payment has a clear owner and a clear process – removing the risk that comes with a fast-moving business running on informal systems.
Tech & Team
AI-powered contract and spend management platform (full lifecycle – initiation through to payment)
Finance function systems design and implementation
Finance team recruitment: role design, job descriptions, and hiring support
Services Provided
- Finance function build (people, processes, systems)
- Merger integration – finance function consolidation
- Technology implementation – AI contract and spend management platform
- Recruitment strategy and finance team hiring