I would go as far as to say it’s impossible to scale without a tool like Aurora. It makes sure we’re not pitching things we can’t uphold or making promises we can’t deliver on.
Aurora Solar
North America
Europe
Switch to the Future
It's time to move beyond the era of clunky grids and bring the future of solar closer: simplify your job, banish outdated technology, and grow your business faster.
Just like how old energy has nothing on solar, a patchwork of outdated design and sales software has nothing on Aurora. Our solar platform transforms the process of designing, selling, and delivering projects. From the first impression to project installation, with Aurora, you can provide a personalized solar customer experience that is uncomplicated.
Let’s deliver a new energy experience, one with the simplicity and predictability of a sunrise. You – the solar pro – make this possible. You power the energy switch, and you deserve better and faster tools to make it happen.
It’s time to switch to the future.
Our Story
Solar shouldn’t be this hard
In 2013, it took two graduate students seven months to design a solar energy system and then just two weeks to install it. What happened? Our co-founders Christopher Hopper and Samuel Adeyemo spent half a year cobbling together various tools to design the system because there was no other way to do it. The project was successful—the process simply wasn’t.
That’s how Chris and Sam came up with the idea to start Aurora Solar. In order to create a future of solar for all, our co-founders realized designing a PV system needs to be just as easy as installing one.
August
2013
Aurora Solar was founded by Christopher Hopper and Samuel Adeyemo while students at the Stanford Graduate School of Business
July
2015
Aurora Solar's performance simulation engine is validated by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
December
2015
Aurora Solar’s remote shading accuracy is validated by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
November
2016
Aurora is awarded $400,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot Incubator Program, Technology to Market, Incubator 10.
February
2019
Raised $20 million in Series A led by Energize Ventures.
March
2020
Aurora becomes the first assessment tool approved by the California Energy Commission to demonstrate compliance with the CA Title 24 solar mandate.
September
2020
Battery storage backup and recommendation functionality released.
November
2020
Raised $50 million in Series B led by ICONIQ.
April
2021
Surpasses five million solar projects designed in the software.
May
2021
Aurora announces $250M in Series C led by Coatue.
February
2022
Aurora announces $200M in Series D led by Coatue and Energize.
Meet Aurora
The people powering solar
Whether partnering with customers to grow their businesses or testing computer vision models, Aurorans are united by the drive to create a future of solar for all. We work every day to innovate the platform trusted most by solar providers around the world.
View CareersOur Team
Christopher Hopper
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Matt Idema
President & Chief Operating Officer
Carina Brockl
Chief Revenue Officer
Patrick Donahue
Chief Product Officer
Jesse Davis
Senior Vice President, Sales
Elain Szu
Senior Vice President, Marketing
Rahul Pathak
Senior Vice President of Engineering
Eraj Siddiqui
Senior Vice President of Customer Success & Services
Nicola Jacks
Vice President of People
Charlie Herche
Vice President of Finance
Sudeep Deshpande
Vice President of Operations
Katharina Meran
Vice President & General Manager
Paul Grana
General Manager, HelioScope
Our Investors
Our customers Moving the industry forward, together
Advancing the solar industry brings the future closer, and that work is powered by you. Here’s how Aurora customers are making a clean energy future possible.
We found that [SolarGraf] wasn’t as technically oriented as our sale was. That’s when we decided to look at other softwares that would give our reps and clients the accuracy they need to make the right buying decision on solar… Aurora is the only tool in the market that matches the technical acumen of our team.
"It's all about customer expectations. It's a great experience for everyone: the rep, the company, the customer. It makes the whole process easier when you get it right from the start."
Learning how to use Sales Mode was almost immediate – everything is right where it needs to be. Sales Mode is probably the easiest aspect of my job.
Never once with Aurora have I been in a position where I’ve felt like I’ve over-promised and under-delivered.
Because it [Aurora] builds a house for you, it's super simple. You're basically adding the panels and getting the panel count right, and you're done. I could create a proposal in probably like less than three minutes. That’s how great it is.
More jobs are going to install because the homeowner feels confident that they’re actually going to get what we originally showed them.
We can see so many people so much faster. There was no way I could run 4-7 appointments per day using the tools we had before.
Interviews with installers using Aurora’s 3D modeling with shade and tilt analysis during the sales process found that its implementation resulted in as much as a 99 percent reduction in change orders.
Submitting the plan set was as smooth as can be and we had no issues with the AHJ. Our team has already saved a ton of time with this service.
The final product that we’re presenting to the homeowner is just so much more professional. The 3D models, sunpath, LIDAR, and other tools are very effective in a sale.
I would go as far as to say it’s impossible to scale without a tool like Aurora. It makes sure we’re not pitching things we can’t uphold or making promises we can’t deliver on.
We found that [SolarGraf] wasn’t as technically oriented as our sale was. That’s when we decided to look at other softwares that would give our reps and clients the accuracy they need to make the right buying decision on solar… Aurora is the only tool in the market that matches the technical acumen of our team.
"It's all about customer expectations. It's a great experience for everyone: the rep, the company, the customer. It makes the whole process easier when you get it right from the start."
Learning how to use Sales Mode was almost immediate – everything is right where it needs to be. Sales Mode is probably the easiest aspect of my job.
Never once with Aurora have I been in a position where I’ve felt like I’ve over-promised and under-delivered.
Because it [Aurora] builds a house for you, it's super simple. You're basically adding the panels and getting the panel count right, and you're done. I could create a proposal in probably like less than three minutes. That’s how great it is.
More jobs are going to install because the homeowner feels confident that they’re actually going to get what we originally showed them.
We can see so many people so much faster. There was no way I could run 4-7 appointments per day using the tools we had before.
Interviews with installers using Aurora’s 3D modeling with shade and tilt analysis during the sales process found that its implementation resulted in as much as a 99 percent reduction in change orders.
Submitting the plan set was as smooth as can be and we had no issues with the AHJ. Our team has already saved a ton of time with this service.
The final product that we’re presenting to the homeowner is just so much more professional. The 3D models, sunpath, LIDAR, and other tools are very effective in a sale.
When you’re selling as much as we’re selling, you have to be able to deliver build-ready projects to your operations team. When sales and operations are aligned, that ultimately allows us to sell more. Aurora has allowed us to bridge that gap.
Most other tools out there are just proposal skins that give rough estimates – and we've used them all. We were so impressed with Aurora's technology that we decided to use them for everything, all the way from proposal to the design, because accuracy is so important.
When we can be accurate on the front-end it helps reduce timelines on the back-end – and that cuts weeks and weeks out of projects.
We’ve had 4 cases where customers didn’t agree with the measurements on the Aurora design that we presented virtually. We decided to go out to the site and measure the house by hand with the homeowner, and in every instance, Aurora was correct. They were actually wrong about the measurements of their own home. The accuracy of the Aurora software, combined with our willingness to put it to the test on-site, helped close the deal each time!
It's such a game-changer that we don’t have to take Suneye readings anymore which saves us time and money. It's wonderful to utilize a platform like Aurora to be so confident in what the system will produce.
Aurora has given us the ability to design efficiently and be confident that we’re providing to the customer a detailed representation of what is going to be on-site without traveling there.
In less than a month utilizing Aurora’s Lead Capture AI, we were able to quadruple our web lead volume, and we see 25% higher set rates from our organic leads compared to those generated through other marketing channels. In my estimation, Lead Capture AI is effective because the tool leverages engaging visuals with readily quantified benefits, helping potential clients understand not only their savings, but what solar would realistically look like on their home.
Previous software was a very manual process, so sales reps could spend 2 hours in the home. Now they can get all of that done in about 20 mins.
We can now create a design for a home in a predetermined amount of time. When it becomes more of a push-of-a-button as opposed to an order, it definitely helps our efficiency. When that pipeline of jobs becomes exponentially bigger, it becomes more and more critical.
The value add to the sales process was huge because we can actually walk through the design with the homeowner. The customer feels like we’re redesigning and building it with them which lends more credibility to us as a company and makes it seem like we’re not just salespeople.
It's all about customer expectations. It's a great experience for everyone: the rep, the company, the customer. It makes the whole process easier when you get it right from the start
When you’re selling as much as we’re selling, you have to be able to deliver build-ready projects to your operations team. When sales and operations are aligned, that ultimately allows us to sell more. Aurora has allowed us to bridge that gap.
Most other tools out there are just proposal skins that give rough estimates – and we've used them all. We were so impressed with Aurora's technology that we decided to use them for everything, all the way from proposal to the design, because accuracy is so important.
When we can be accurate on the front-end it helps reduce timelines on the back-end – and that cuts weeks and weeks out of projects.
We’ve had 4 cases where customers didn’t agree with the measurements on the Aurora design that we presented virtually. We decided to go out to the site and measure the house by hand with the homeowner, and in every instance, Aurora was correct. They were actually wrong about the measurements of their own home. The accuracy of the Aurora software, combined with our willingness to put it to the test on-site, helped close the deal each time!
It's such a game-changer that we don’t have to take Suneye readings anymore which saves us time and money. It's wonderful to utilize a platform like Aurora to be so confident in what the system will produce.
Aurora has given us the ability to design efficiently and be confident that we’re providing to the customer a detailed representation of what is going to be on-site without traveling there.
In less than a month utilizing Aurora’s Lead Capture AI, we were able to quadruple our web lead volume, and we see 25% higher set rates from our organic leads compared to those generated through other marketing channels. In my estimation, Lead Capture AI is effective because the tool leverages engaging visuals with readily quantified benefits, helping potential clients understand not only their savings, but what solar would realistically look like on their home.
Previous software was a very manual process, so sales reps could spend 2 hours in the home. Now they can get all of that done in about 20 mins.
We can now create a design for a home in a predetermined amount of time. When it becomes more of a push-of-a-button as opposed to an order, it definitely helps our efficiency. When that pipeline of jobs becomes exponentially bigger, it becomes more and more critical.
The value add to the sales process was huge because we can actually walk through the design with the homeowner. The customer feels like we’re redesigning and building it with them which lends more credibility to us as a company and makes it seem like we’re not just salespeople.
It's all about customer expectations. It's a great experience for everyone: the rep, the company, the customer. It makes the whole process easier when you get it right from the start
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