Sacra estimates Aurora Solar hit $170M in revenue in 2023, growing approximately 70% year-over-year. The company has demonstrated remarkable growth since its founding, scaling from a 40-person team processing 1.5M solar projects to supporting over 10M installations globally.

Aurora Solar generates revenue through its SaaS platform, which helps solar companies design, sell and implement solar installations. The company charges a 15% transaction fee on top of its base pricing, positioning itself as a cost-effective alternative to traditional consulting services that can cost customers hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

The company serves over 7,000 organizations in the solar industry, from small installers to large enterprises. Their customer retention metrics rank in the top quartile when benchmarked against all software businesses, with consistently improving annual retention rates.

Aurora Solar was founded in 2012 by Christopher Hopper and Samuel Adeyemo after they encountered challenges while running their own solar development business. Unable to find adequate tools for remote solar design and analysis, they began building their own solution.

Aurora Solar found product-market fit as a remote solar design and sales platform for solar installation companies, eliminating the need for time-consuming site visits and manual measurements. The product uses aerial imagery, LIDAR data, and 3D modeling to enable installers to design solar systems without physically visiting properties.

The core platform allows solar professionals to input a property address and quickly generate accurate 3D models of buildings, analyze shade patterns, and determine optimal panel placement. Users can perform complex calculations for energy production estimates and create detailed system designs that meet local building codes and regulations.

Solar sales teams use Aurora's Sales Mode to create custom proposals and visualizations during customer meetings. The platform automatically generates permit-ready engineering documents and plan sets, while integration with financing partners enables instant pricing and loan options. A collaborative workspace allows multiple team members to work on projects simultaneously, from initial design through final installation planning.

Aurora Solar is a SaaS company that provides solar design and sales software to solar installation companies, helping them remotely design and sell solar systems without visiting customer sites. The company operates on a flexible credit-based pricing model where customers purchase credits to spend on projects and features, with each credit costing $0.10.

The company's core revenue comes from solar installers using their platform to design residential projects (150-220 credits) and commercial projects (2,000 credits), with additional revenue from add-on features like AI-assisted site modeling (90 credits) and e-signature capabilities (50 credits). Enterprise customers commit to annual minimums of $15,000, while smaller customers can start with 2,500 credits ($250) valid for one year.

Aurora Solar's competitive advantage stems from its ability to accurately determine solar panel placement and energy production using aerial imagery and LIDAR data, eliminating costly site visits that traditionally made up a large portion of solar "soft costs." The company's land-and-expand strategy focuses on getting solar installers to standardize on their platform across their entire organization, from sales to engineering, driving increased usage over time as customers grow their solar businesses.

Aurora Solar operates in a market for solar design and sales software that includes several distinct categories of competitors and adjacent solution providers.

The largest competitors in this space are legacy players like HelioScope by Folsom Labs (acquired by Enphase) and PVsyst, which focus primarily on technical design and engineering. These platforms tend to be more complex and engineering-focused compared to Aurora's emphasis on streamlining the entire solar sales and design workflow. EagleView offers aerial imagery and measurement services that some solar companies use for preliminary designs.

A range of companies provide targeted solutions for specific parts of the solar development process. Energy Toolbase focuses on utility rate and financial analysis, while Solar-Estimate and EnergySage specialize in lead generation and customer acquisition. Solargraf by Enphase offers proposal generation tools. These point solutions often integrate with larger platforms but lack the end-to-end capabilities of Aurora's platform.

Newer entrants like OpenSolar are attempting to disrupt the market by offering free basic design tools while monetizing through partnerships and premium features. SolarUp focuses on streamlining residential solar sales with mobile-first tools. These companies typically target smaller installers and individual sales representatives rather than Aurora's core market of medium to large solar companies.

The competitive landscape is shifting as solar hardware costs continue to decline and soft costs (sales, design, permitting) become an increasingly large portion of total installation costs. This has driven increased investment in software solutions aimed at reducing these soft costs through automation and workflow optimization.

Aurora Solar has tailwinds from the rapid growth of solar installations globally and increasing regulatory pressure for carbon accounting, with opportunities to expand into adjacent markets like broader renewable energy design software and carbon reporting tools.

The solar industry is experiencing exponential growth, with installations expected to grow 12x between now and 2050. While hardware costs have declined by 90% over the past decade, soft costs still make up 60-70% of total installation costs. Aurora's software platform directly addresses these soft costs by automating design, sales, and permitting processes. With over 7,000 organizations already using the platform for 10 million+ projects globally, Aurora is well-positioned to capture value as the industry scales.

Aurora's Sales Mode product demonstrates their ability to expand beyond pure design software into end-to-end workflow solutions. The company can leverage their existing customer relationships to build additional tools for project management, customer relationship management, and supply chain optimization specifically tailored for solar companies. Their API-first approach enables integration with other enterprise systems, positioning them as the operating system for the entire solar industry.

As regulatory requirements for emissions disclosure increase, particularly with new SEC rules, Aurora can expand into carbon accounting and reporting tools. Their deep understanding of solar system performance and existing relationships with energy companies creates natural synergies for building software that helps companies track, report, and optimize their renewable energy investments. This represents a significant opportunity as companies globally seek solutions for environmental compliance and sustainability goals.

Dependency on solar industry growth: Aurora's success is heavily tied to the continued rapid expansion of solar installations, with projections showing 12x growth by 2050. If solar adoption slows due to policy changes, supply chain issues, or economic headwinds, Aurora's growth trajectory could be severely impacted since their revenue directly correlates with new solar projects.

Soft cost compression: Aurora's value proposition centers on reducing the "soft costs" that make up 60-70% of solar installation expenses. As the industry matures and more competitors enter the space, these soft costs will likely face downward pressure, potentially reducing Aurora's ability to maintain its current pricing and margins. This could force them to continuously expand product offerings to justify their fees.

Customer concentration risk: With over 7,000 solar companies using Aurora's platform, there's significant exposure to the financial health of solar installers and developers. An industry downturn could trigger consolidation among these customers, reducing Aurora's bargaining power and potentially leading to pricing pressure or customer losses. The company's revenue growth could be disproportionately affected if several large customers struggle simultaneously.