Aurora: Powering the Future of Solar

Story written by Doug Pepper, Tengbo Li and Vibhor Khanna

Solar power has quietly emerged in recent years as a formidable energy source. Over the past decade, solar has, on average, grown 49% annually in the U.S.[1] Solar capacity now totals 85 gigawatts domestically, enough to power over ten million homes.[2] We believe that our newest investment, Aurora Solar, is the leading SaaS platform serving this young but growing sector. We are proud to partner with Chris, Sam and the entire Aurora team to help the residential solar industry meaningfully scale its penetration and impact.

We firmly believe that the outlook for solar is stronger than it has ever been. Technological improvements have significantly reduced the cost of solar panels and inverters, which historically represented the majority of solar installation costs. Solar is now cheaper on a per watt basis than traditional electricity in many U.S. states, a trend buoyed by, but no longer dependent, on federal tax incentives and state-by-state net metering policies.

Demand for solar has soared as a result. Solar installations, dominated by a few companies just a few years ago, have exploded as thousands of new installers — Aurora’s core customer profile — have emerged and built impressive footprints in local markets.

When Chris Hopper and Sam Adeyemo founded Aurora in 2013 after graduating from Stanford business school, they faced a fledgling industry whose prospects were still uncertain. Amidst a tight funding environment, they chose to bootstrap the business. Having personally designed solar installations in emerging markets, they leveraged their deep experience with customer pain points to develop a platform with exceptional product-market fit and employed an efficient self-serve model to distribute it.

We have been blown away by what they achieved. Today, Aurora serves definitively as the industry standard for solar design and sales.

Aurora’s path to category leadership has been grounded in its comprehensive approach to addressing the under-digitization of the solar industry. This under-digitization is perhaps best typified by the fact that many installers still go door-to-door to pitch new installations. When a consumer expresses interest in adopting solar, installers must physically return to the home to analyze shade patterns and determine where to place panels. Pitching to any individual prospect can take up to half a day or more. It is no wonder that the cost of solar projects today is driven as much by ‘soft costs’ associated with sales and marketing as by ‘hard costs’ associated with the underlying equipment.

Aurora provides an end-to-end platform that significantly reduces these soft costs. Using Aurora, installers can perform shade analysis, measure the dimensions of the property and design installations remotely. Aurora enables installers to generate highly accurate power generation and cost savings estimates, which flow directly into ready-to-use sales proposals. Further, consumers can use Aurora’s data to secure financing packages from lenders and rebates from government authorities.

The feedback we heard from Aurora customers was effusive. Installers ranging from mom-and-pops to industry giants highlighted how Aurora saved hours per prospect by eliminating the friction of on-site visits, a pain point that has only grown more acute during the pandemic. They raved about higher conversion rates and increased customer satisfaction. They emphasized how deeply integrated Aurora is into their core operations and how diverse personas relied upon and embraced the platform, including designers, engineers, proposal specialists and sales reps alike.

For all of Aurora’s success, we believe that the opportunity ahead of the company remains enormous. Solar remains one of the fastest growing major industries globally, with annual growth of more than 15%+ expected over the next five years. Aurora’s compelling product roadmap, focused on areas such as marketing and permitting, herald new ways to drive value to this growing industry.

We could not be more excited to partner with Chris and Sam to help them realize their vision of a solar industry powered by exceptional software. Similar to other leading vertical SaaS companies in our portfolio such as QGenda (healthcare), Relativity (legal), Procore (construction) and ServiceTitan (home services), Aurora is not only driving success for individual customers but enabling an entire industry to thrive. As a firm focused on channeling capital and ideas to initiatives that improve the world, we are ecstatic to support this mission-oriented company in powering the shift to a cleaner, more sustainable future.

[1] SEIA

[2] Ibid.