Funding Round Co-Led by Coatue and Energize Ventures, underscores the rising importance of software in the energy transition

/PRNewswire/ — Aurora Solar, the industry’s leading software platform for solar sales and design, announced it closed a $200 million Series D funding round co-led by current investors Coatue and Energize Ventures with participation from Fifth Wall, ICONIQ and new investors, Lux Capital and Emerson Collective. With this funding, Aurora Solar will accelerate its mission to create a future of clean energy by equipping solar professionals with a powerful and accessible software platform for every step of the solar adoption process.

“As a trusted partner to the fastest growing solar companies, we have a unique vantage point from which to deliver customer-centric innovation,” said Christopher Hopper, Co-founder and CEO of Aurora Solar. “We are thrilled about our next chapter and accelerating innovations that enable every member of the solar organization to benefit from data and AI, and ultimately deliver on the promise of solar.”

The solar industry is at a strategic inflection point. According to the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), solar has experienced an average annual growth rate of 42% in installed solar capacity over the past decade and is expected to continue setting a series of record years until 2024. This strong industry-level momentum, along with the dramatic shift to a digital-first business environment, further accelerated by the pandemic, has highlighted the need for the solar companies to double down on digital transformation. 

“Software is increasingly becoming a mission-critical part of every solar organization’s technology and operating strategy,” said Samuel Adeyemo, Co-founder and CRO of Aurora Solar. “Aurora’s focus is to help our customers tackle some of the industry’s biggest challenges head on: accelerating sales cycles, scaling up design operations, and transitioning costly and ineffective manual processes to automated and integrated workflows.”

With more than 7.5 million solar projects designed in its software platform, Aurora is the de facto standard for solar sales, design and operations. Top solar companies in the US, including Freedom Forever, Infinity Energy, Sunpower and POWERHOME Solar depend on Aurora to power their sales, design and operations teams, and deliver meaningful business outcomes. Building on this momentum, this funding will help Aurora accelerate its product development, expand outreach, and build lasting, trusted relationships with their customers while also increasing Aurora’s collaboration with the broader solar community.

“Solar is a $100 billion industry and the fastest growing power generation source in the world. At Energize, we believe the key to accelerating solar adoption at scale is through software and automation,” said John Tough, managing partner at Energize Ventures, which is Aurora’s largest investor. “Aurora is building the operating system that will support this growth, and we’re thrilled to make our fourth consecutive investment in the company as they continue to expand their platform and build upon their world-class team.”

Aurora Solar is committed to supporting solar companies, big and small, global and local, as they lead society toward a sustainable future, and will continue to work toward its mission of providing all solar professionals with leading-edge tools to efficiently sell, design, and install high quality solar projects.

Aurora Solar will highlight its latest innovations at its Sunrise Demo Day event on March 2, 2022.