Applied Computing, a London-based startup building foundational AI models for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries, has raised $20 million in Series A led by engineering giant KBR, with participation from Databricks Ventures.
Founded in 2023, the startup targets oil, gas, refining, and petrochemical systems, where a single facility can install thousands of sensors measuring everything from temperature and pressure to velocity and viscosity. While there is a huge market to help energy companies solve data tracking problems, fragmentation remains a major hurdle.
As a result, facilities end up using less than 8% of the available data to make operational decisions, said Callum Adamson (pictured above, right), co-founder and CEO of Applied Computing. He said operators already collect much of this information, but are struggling to combine sensor readings, engineering documents, physics and chemistry quickly enough to analyze and make predictions.
“It’s about allowing these three data sources to talk to each other in real time. That’s the real key,” he told TechCrunch.
Unlike large language models that predict the next word, Orbital, a foundational model for applied computing, says it uses a combination of time series models, physically-based models, and language models to predict facility conditions. This is done by analyzing sensor readings, keeping physics and chemistry in mind, and recognizing facility equipment constraints and operator activity. Engineers can also run simulations of how changes to one part of the facility will affect the rest of the facility’s operations.
Basically, applied computing is speeding up. Orbital claims it can flag an anomaly, investigate its cause, and model whether a proposed fix might cause problems elsewhere in the facility, all within minutes. Adamson claims the product compresses investigations that previously took days or weeks into seconds, allowing operators to reduce energy usage and maintain production output.
They seem to believe in the promise of speed. The company says it went from stealth to double-digit multi-million dollar annual recurring revenue within 18 months. Adamson said Orbital is used by some “large publicly traded” upstream oil and gas companies, downstream refiners and petrochemical companies, but declined to say how many customers it has.
Its partners include Indian energy company Wipro and KBR, which has integrated Orbital into its INSITE 3.0 digital platform for energy projects and is using its products for ammonia production. Adamson said the company is also working with “major upstream operators in the United States” and plans to announce a partnership with a major European oil company in the coming weeks.
Still, Applied Computing is entering a market entrenched not only by industrial software suppliers but also by more focused AI startups. AspenTech sells simulation and AI-powered modeling software for upstream, refining, and chemical operations. AVEVA, on the other hand, provides physically-based process simulation, optimization, and “what-if” modeling for industrial plants. Cognite and Seeq target the data layer, helping facilities analyze industrial data and apply AI to workflow design.
Adamson argues that the company’s moat is not about access to industrial data or process knowledge, but about bringing together AI researchers to build models that can compete with Orbital.
“This is an AI issue. It’s not a data issue, it’s not an energy issue,” he said. “If you were a first-class AI researcher, where would you work?…I don’t think Shell is on that list.”
Adamson also pointed to the data Orbital receives throughout its deployment. Operating data from refineries and other energy facilities is not publicly available, but simulated data cannot fully reproduce what happens inside a working plant, he said.
The partnership with KBR could also help the company. Adamson said the partnership will give Applied Computing access to operational data and industry expertise, allowing it to introduce more potential customers.
Applied Computing plans to use the $20 million to expand internationally, hire for research and engineering roles, and explore deployments with energy customers.
The company on Thursday announced that it has opened an office in Houston, in addition to its London headquarters and Bengaluru operations. Adamson said the U.S. location brings the company closer to its two existing customers in North America, and it is also planning expansion into the Middle East.
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