Regardless of file progress within the photo voltaic trade final yr, software program startup Aurora Photo voltaic has laid off 20% of its employees of about 1,000 folks, TechCrunch has solely discovered.
The corporate, which offers software program to assist photo voltaic installers handle their gross sales, challenge design, and set up course of, has missed its progress targets for the previous yr, a supply mentioned. Monday’s layoffs observe a smaller layoff of round 20 folks in November, they added.
Aurora Photo voltaic final raised $200 million in a Sequence D spherical that closed in February 2022, lower than 9 months after elevating a $250 million Series C. In complete, the corporate has raised $523 million, in accordance with PitchBook.
The corporate didn’t reply to a request for remark.
It’s doable that Aurora Photo voltaic hit stiffer headwinds than anticipated in California, the place adjustments in internet metering led to householders getting paid about 75% less for energy offered again to utilities. Whereas that hasn’t cratered demand for photo voltaic amongst single-family householders, it’s doable the brand new rules knocked it off its earlier trajectory.
The web metering adjustments generated a surge of curiosity final yr, according to Aurora Photo voltaic’s knowledge, possible from householders hoping to get in earlier than the brand new guidelines took impact.
With internet metering charges slashed, the state has determined to supply richer incentives for photo voltaic installations that embrace batteries. However many door-to-door gross sales representatives, particularly those that work independently, aren’t as nicely outfitted to promote batteries since they require way more particulars a few house than photo voltaic alone.
To design and allow a battery system, gross sales reps need to calculate the family’s day by day power utilization, measurement up the house’s electrical panel, and determine the place to place the batteries. Photo voltaic, alternatively, can usually be offered by taking a look at satellite tv for pc images of a house’s roof and surrounding bushes and buildings, from which software program can simply calculate how a lot energy a photo voltaic array can produce.
Consequently, smaller installers have been facing pressure below the brand new regime. Whereas Aurora Photo voltaic says its software program is utilized by 90% of the highest 100 photo voltaic installers, it additionally has over 7,000 clients, lots of which possible fall within the lengthy tail of the distribution, those who say they’re below probably the most stress. In complete, the California photo voltaic trade was estimated to chop 17,000 jobs final yr.
