Why We are Continuing to Invest in Aurora Solar

November 30, 2020

Poised for post-pandemic rebuilding

“Solar has emerged as one of the key future energy sources, and Aurora is increasingly the go-to solution for solar installers who are looking to affordably deploy solar at scale,” said Samuel Adeyemo, Co-founder of Aurora Solar. “The pandemic has accelerated trends towards remote processes, and we are delighted to have the resources to build all the tools that will help the industry thrive in this new environment.”

Software: The key to reducing soft costs

When we first invested in Aurora’s software, we intimately understood inefficiencies in selling, designing and financing solar because we had experienced it firsthand — I began my career developing commercial solar PV and energy efficiency projects for an energy services company. In the solar industry, workflows are complex, highly manual, often inaccurate, and costly — in other words, the ideal candidate to be streamlined by software.

Prior to investing, the Energize team reviewed nearly 60 startups addressing the solar and behind-the-meter distributed energy markets. When we were first introduced to Aurora by one of our limited partners in 2018, I was immediately impressed by their product and commercial progress. We approached the investment opportunity with a prepared mind on the solar software market, which helped us reach conviction fast — within 10 days, over Thanksgiving that year, we issued a term sheet. That holiday will forever be (fondly) remembered as the “Aurora Thanksgiving” among the Energize family and my own. Today, I remain confident in Aurora’s growth potential and aligned on its growth strategy: continue investing in product-led growth, expand sales and customer support, and build a management team to help scale the organization.

A customer-focused team committed to growth

Chris, Sam and the Aurora team have exceeded our expectations so far. They’ve built a strong management team across product, engineering and customer engagement. Aurora has dramatically expanded product functionality, including in-app 3D modeling and battery storage design. Chris and Sam have created an incredible foundation to scale, all while staying capital efficient.

The sun is the limit

The Series B funding will enable Aurora to further extend product depth across the solar value chain, address adjacent technologies like battery storage and energy efficiency, and expand globally. Doug and ICONIQ Capital have tremendous experience helping growth-stage software firms prepare to eventually become public companies. Critically, the solar industry is poised as a sustainable growth engine as we emerge from COVID, creating local jobs and environmental benefits for economies worldwide. The sun is the limit for Aurora. Congratulations to Chris, Sam, and the entire Aurora Solar team for their success so far — Energize is excited to continue the journey with you!

Related posts:

Path of Exile is the most popular ARPG, and there are many things in Path of Exile that you will discover later in the game, like resources, use of gems, and builds. In the early game, you often find…

This is produced through changes in tension on the string on either side of the finger, by oscillating it over the string along the string length. More fingers apply more tension and result in a…

A solid morning routine is the backbone of a productive day. What you do in the morning can make or break the rest of your day. The best morning habits put in the perfect mood to get things done…