Client story · Reverse Resources
When a world-changing ambition meets strong financial management
KL Raamatupidamine's clients include companies of very different sizes, stages of development and business models. One of the most exciting examples is Reverse Resources – an Estonian company whose founder and CEO Ann Runnel has set herself a big goal: to change how textile waste is handled in the global clothing industry.
- Expected time: at least 12 months. In reality it took 3 months
- 3 countries with different accounting systems: Estonia, Bangladesh and India
- 3 business lines into one set of management information
- ~5 years Ann spent looking for the right solution
Now I feel so much more supported, because I no longer make these financial decisions alone.
Ann Runnel, founder and CEO of Reverse Resources
International ambition from the start
Reverse Resources is building an international system designed to turn textile waste back into a valuable, traceable raw material. KL Raamatupidamine's role is to help build the financial management behind this ambition – management that can develop as fast as the company itself.
Reverse Resources didn't follow the usual logic – Estonia first, then nearby markets and only then the world. The company's first major country of operation was Bangladesh, one of the world's largest garment manufacturing hubs. The reason was simple: if the goal is to really change how the textile industry works, you have to go where the large volumes are.
From the very beginning, the company's mission has been to help build textile circularity, where textile waste generated in production doesn't disappear into an opaque waste management chain but becomes a traceable raw material that can be used again in the textile and clothing industry.
One of Reverse Resources' first major recognitions was the H&M Foundation's Global Change Award, and today it works with some of the world's biggest clothing brands and manufacturers.
- In 34 countries factories use the company's solution
- In 13 countries the team is based
- ~400 factories sort their textile waste in its system
- 18 of the world's largest clothing brands are among its clients
But such an international reach also brings a great deal of internal complexity.
Reverse Resources connects clothing brands, manufacturing factories, textile waste traders, recyclers and the public sector. In addition, the company runs three different business lines in parallel: project-based consulting and international partnership projects, a SaaS service (a software solution), and a business handling transactions and trading of textile waste.
On top of that comes an international group structure: a head office in Estonia, companies in Bangladesh and India, and different countries' accounting, tax and software systems. All of this has been built largely through bootstrapping and project funding, rather than with the usual large investment rounds.
Ann and one of her team members have described this complexity very aptly: they have been trying to rebuild a Zaporozhets into a Lamborghini on the move – while still driving the car.
It is exactly at this stage of development that it becomes especially important whether a company's financial management can keep up with its growth.
When accounting has to become a management tool
Ann herself studied finance at university, Reverse Resources has had financial expertise, and the company has made forecasts from the very beginning. The question wasn't whether anyone was working with the numbers. The challenge was to bring the different accounting systems of Estonia, Bangladesh and India, three business lines, various stakeholders and international operations together into one complete set of management information.
Much of the company-wide view had to be put together by Ann herself in Excel, alongside the official accounts. This meant duplicate work and made it increasingly difficult to quickly get the information a CEO needs to make decisions.
Ann had been looking for the right solution for almost five years and had tried various options. Reverse Resources didn't simply need an accounting service, but a partner who could understand international business, start-up logic, different business models and the needs of a rapidly changing organisation – all at once.
That is how Reverse Resources came to KL Raamatupidamine.
At the start of the cooperation, Ann thought that taking the company's financial systems to the next level would take at least a year. In reality, within the first three months they reached the point she had expected to reach in about a year – and this while Reverse Resources itself was going through major organisational changes at the same time.
Ann sums up working with KL Raamatupidamine in three words: professionalism, speed and clarity.
For her, however, the level of expertise has been just as important. KL Raamatupidamine's task wasn't simply to take over the existing accounting. First, we had to understand what kind of financial management a company with this structure actually needs, how to bring the different systems together, and how to turn the numbers into a real management tool for the CEO.
This is exactly where an ordinary accounting service and a strong financial partnership start to differ.
Good financial management doesn't just tell a manager what happened last month. A manager needs to see what is happening in the different business lines, what the cash flow looks like, where the money is going, which activities are profitable, what risks lie ahead and how today's decisions will affect the coming months.
And it's just as important that the manager has someone to think these decisions through with. Ann says this has been one of the biggest changes in working with KL Raamatupidamine:
Now I feel so much more supported, because I no longer make these financial decisions alone.
Ann Runnel, founder and CEO of Reverse Resources
Finances shouldn't be trailing behind the company
Ann uses a horse metaphor to describe the change in financial management. In a fast-growing and changing company, it can feel as though the finances are trailing behind the company's development and the manager is constantly trying to help them catch up. With strong financial management, the manager finally gets into the saddle.
The numbers are then no longer just a look back at what happened last month or last year. They help decide what the company does next.
For Reverse Resources this is especially important, because the next stage of development is a big one. The company is moving from a project-based model towards an increasingly scalable digital platform through which textile waste can move more transparently from manufacturers to recyclers and back into new raw material.
When a company's business model becomes more scalable, its financial management has to be able to scale too.
In this sense, Reverse Resources and KL Raamatupidamine are actually more alike than they might seem at first glance. One solves a complex problem in the global textile industry; the other helps companies solve the complexity in their finances. For both, what matters is not to hide complexity but to create a system that makes it manageable.
For us at KL Raamatupidamine, Reverse Resources is a good example of what the role of a modern financial partner can be. Sometimes a company needs correct accounting. At another stage of development, though, it needs a partner who helps the manager see the big picture, build systems and use financial information to make decisions.
Our cooperation with Reverse Resources is only just beginning, but Ann says one important feeling has already changed. After years of building, experimenting and carrying a very big ambition, she looks at the company's next stage with a different kind of confidence:
Now we can do it.
Ann Runnel, founder and CEO of Reverse Resources
Perhaps this is one of the best measures of a strong financial partnership. Not just whether the accounting is in order and the reports are ready on time, but whether the company's manager has a better overview, more confidence in decisions and a sense that the next leap forward is genuinely achievable.
Reverse Resources is building a system that helps turn textile waste into a new resource. KL Raamatupidamine helps build the financial system behind it that allows this ambition to grow.
Read more about Reverse Resources: reverseresources.net ↗
Are your finances trailing behind your company?
Let's talk for 30 minutes, with no obligation. Together we'll look at what kind of financial management suits your company's current stage of development.