Energize Ventures is thrilled to announce our participation in Aurora Solar’s $250M Series C led by Coatue. Existing investors Fifth Wall and ICONIQ Capital are also participating in the round.
Energize first decided to partner with Aurora’s co-founders Chris Hopper and Samuel Adeyemo by leading their Series A back in 2019. We built conviction in the potential of Aurora’s solar sales and design software because our team had experienced firsthand the pain points of selling, designing, and financing solar. We recognized that as the buildout of commercial and residential solar expands globally, software is necessary in helping the industry scale by making installations more affordable and accessible. Today, we are doubling down on our conviction and continuing our investment in Aurora through our growth fund, Energize Growth Fund I. We believe the demand for solutions to address these challenges will only continue to grow as the transition towards renewable energy accelerates.
A theme that can be seen across the renewable energy spectrum is hard costs on the decline. Solar is perhaps the best example of this trend, and we are seeing the decreasing cost of hardware create demand from consumers and businesses alike. Along with growing demand comes new challenges, such as accurate design and efficient permitting. The best solutions for these pain points? We believe it’s software. As we’ve seen in the past, this theme will again play out multiple times over the course of the energy transition as the cost of hardware like solar continues to decrease.
Over the next decade, soft costs will continue to capture a larger share of total installed costs for solar. Simultaneously, annual solar installs are expected to grow at a rate of over 20 percent[1]. We believe this combination sets the table for Aurora to enable the next step change in deployment.
Over the past two years, Chris and Sam have assembled a fantastic leadership team across product, engineering, sales, and customer success. Aurora’s team tripled in size since 2019 and continues expanding rapidly with incredible mission-driven talent operating at the intersection of climate and technology.
In partnering with Coatue and existing investors for a substantial Series C raise, Aurora becomes the best-capitalized renewable energy software company in history. Aurora’s robust balance sheet, having raised more than $320M since 2019, will enable aggressive investment in product expansion to new solar and distributed energy workflows across the entire solar project lifecycle, such as origination, sales, permitting and more.
A huge congratulations to the Aurora team on your success so far — we are excited to continue supporting your vision to become the de facto operating system for the solar industry!
[1] SEIA Solar Industry Research Data
