Aether Launches First AI GTM Engine for the Trades

Aether, the Y Combinator–backed startup redefining how the trades operate, today announced the official launch of the Aether GTM Engine for the Trades — a unified go-to-market platform built to help contractors scale revenue generation across verticals like roofing, solar, HVAC, landscaping, and fire mitigation.

Where most trades contractors rely on a patchwork of CRMs, proposal tools, schedulers, and measurement apps, Aether replaces the fragmented sales stack with one integrated go-to-market workspace. Whether it's storm-damaged roofs, solar-ready homes, overgrown lots, or aging HVAC systems, contractors can use Aether to target the right properties, generate instant quotes, automate follow-ups, and move jobs to close, all powered by AI agents built specifically for the trades.

AI-Powered GTM for the Modern Contractor

At its core, the Aether GTM Engine combines targeting, design, quoting, and follow-up automation into a single system. Reps don’t have to manually enter data, chase homeowners, or toggle between tabs. Instead, AI agents trigger next steps, so deals move forward automatically.

Built for both residential and commercial teams, Aether supports sales motions across:

• Roofing – AI-based roof measurements, insurance-ready scopes, dynamic proposals, and adjuster-ready workflows.

• Solar – Irradiance modeling, solar design, and integrated financing proposals with battery and EV charger add-ons.

• Landscaping – 3D-ready design tools for quicker take-offs with site plans and work orders.

• HVAC & Heat Pumps – Load-driven heat pump proposals, savings modeling calculations, and quote-to-schedule flows.

Context

Aether began in solar, where it built one of the industry's leading automated solar platform, combining remote design, and proposal automation. But as the product evolved, it became clear that roofing, landscaping, HVAC, and other trades not only faced the same GTM challenges such as manual quoting, using expensive customer acquisition channels, relying heavily on outdated door knocking methods, fragmented tools, and inefficient follow-up, but they also shared remarkably similar workflows: reps in the field, jobs scoped on the fly, and deals won or lost based on speed and accuracy. They were running the same broken playbook.

Across every trade, roofing, solar, HVAC, landscaping, the team kept seeing the same story: sales workflows hadn’t really changed in over 70 years for the better. Reps still knock doors, inspect manually, chase paperwork, and wait days to send a quote. Inbound calls go unanswered. Opportunities slip through the cracks. Even as tools like CRMs, satellite measurement, or e-sign emerged, the sales process always stayed the same - reactive, and brute-forced and carrying high customer acquisition costs.

This prompted founders Zayne Sagar (CEO) and Shelby Bons (CTO) to build Aether to do what no legacy platform could: become the first GTM engine for the trades, one system to drive targeting, quoting, follow-up, and close, powered by AI agents and built for how contractors actually sell in the field. It gives trades businesses the ability to close faster, grow leaner, and run high-velocity sales at scale.

“We built Aether to be the GTM engine for the trades,” said Zayne Sagar, Aether CEO. “Roofing sales has barely changed in 70 years. Solar workflows are complex and brute forced. HVAC quoting isn’t built for the electrification era. Landscapers are still sketching designs by hand. Contractors shouldn’t lose deals because their software is stuck in the past. Aether gives every crew the ability to reduce truck rolls, and a digital coworker, a new way to build pipeline. It’s how trades businesses finally scale the right way with better margins.”

At the heart of Aether is an agentic AI architecture purpose-built for the trades, a system of always-on, AI-powered digital coworkers that don’t just suggest, but execute. These aren’t generic assistants, they’re trade-trained agents embedded across the companies business, designed to work like your best coordinator, estimator, and follow-up rep combined. What makes them different is their deep integration with Aether’s proprietary AI, automated 3D design engine and intent engine, which together form a high-fidelity digital twin of over 400 million properties across North America and the EU.

Agents in Aether can create new pipeline, surface the next best action, draft and send follow-ups, update quotes, schedule jobs, answer inbound calls, create solar designs, roofing measurement reports, and qualify leads, all without human prompting. Whether a homeowner opens a proposal at 9pm or a new lead comes in on Sunday, the agent acts immediately, responding, booking, and logging the next step. This is why the agent-first model is such a fit for the trades.

From One Platform, Contractors Can Now:

• Eliminate disjointed workflows and cut costs. A roofing firm, for example, no longer needs separate apps for inspection photos, aerial measurements, and CRM.

• Leverage an extensible, trade-specific CRM that powers flexible workflows with end-to-end automations.

• enable digital buying journeys: Homeowners receive instant solar layouts, roof measurements, and landscaping quotes powered by Aether’s computer-vision models.

• Proprietary Computer Vision AI combines aerial & ground imagery, LiDAR, roof geometry, landscape features to produce accurate quotes, which removes the need for on-site visits and truck rolls.

• Use agents to automate workflows. Aether’s trade-trained agents guide building owners toward a signed deal, design building systems, manage quotes, scheduling, follow-ups, and more to power a sales motion that runs 24/7 without human intervention.

• Target the highest-intent properties via Aether’s database of 400M digital-twin buildings for their specific trade.

  
  

Companies adopting Aether’s GTM Engine are seeing:

• 3× faster sales cycles

• Up to 50% lower CAC

• 30–40% less headcount needed

• Fewer truck rolls

Progress

Aether is live in operation and has generated over 100,000 projects over the last 4 months across key initial verticals such as Solar and Roofing. Aether vaulted to $1 million ARR just three months after relaunch, putting it in the top one percent of SaaS growth trajectories and proving contractor’s appetite for an AI-first GTM Platform.

The start-up has over 40 mid-market and Enterprise customers to date across North America and Western Europe in key markets such as Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Poland.

The company is led by UC Berkeley Engineering alumni Zayne Sagar and Shelby Bons and has raised $2.5M in pre-seed funding.

For more information about Aether, please visit aethergtm.com