How installing solar panels in Kenya led this duo to launch a Ksh.357B tech company

Planning the installation of the 220 panels proved to be more challenging than the installation itself. 

The duo, who are based in the United States say they saw the need for tools to streamline the design of commercial and residential solar projects without requiring a physical presence on the ground.

In 2013, Adeyemo and Hooper founded Aurora Solar, a California-based, software application startup whose platform helps solar professionals design and install solar systems.

Aurora Solar enables solar professionals to remotely design systems before installation, such as determining how many solar panels will fit on a property, the project’s energy production potential, and the financial savings that switching to solar will bring to a client and the battery needs.

Ten years later, Aurora has grown to attain unicorn status. ​​In the financial world, this refers to a startup that is privately owned with a valuation exceeding $1 billion.

Per its Crunchbase profile, the startup has so far raised a total of Ksh.62.4 billion ($523.5M) in funding over 5 rounds, the latest being a February 28 Series D round that fetched Ksh.23.8 billion ($200M).

Last year, the startup told Forbes it had achieved unicorn status, with a Ksh.357 billion ($2 billion) valuation.

Aurora at the same time acknowledged that more than 40,000 projects are created on its platform each week and that over 5 million projects have been completed. 

About 95% of these, according to Adeyemo, are based in the US while international demand is growing.

“Increasingly, as our product develops, we’re also generating data that we can use to make the product better. That’s actually one of the most exciting aspects of what we’re doing,” Adeyemo told the publication then.

The two have two master’s degrees each; on top of their Stanford MBAs, Adeyemo holds an MSc in Earth Sciences from the college, while Hopper has Master of Engineering degree from Imperial College London.