Applied Computing, a London startup founded in 2023 that is building a foundation-model style AI for the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, has secured $20 million in a Series A funding round led by engineering firm KBR, with participation from Databricks Ventures.
Why the technology is needed
The company focuses on upstream oil and gas, downstream refining and petrochemical facilities, where a single site can host thousands of sensors recording temperature, pressure, flow velocity, viscosity and other variables. While there is a large market for solutions that address industrial data tracking, fragmentation across systems is a major obstacle: Applied Computing says facilities make operating decisions using less than 8% of available data.
Callum Adamson, co-founder and CEO of Applied Computing, says operators typically collect much of the necessary information but struggle to combine sensor measurements, engineering documentation and physics-and-chemistry models quickly enough to analyze situations and make accurate predictions. “It’s getting those three data sources to talk to each other in real time. That’s the real key,” he said.
What Orbital does
Unlike large language models that predict the next word, Applied Computing describes Orbital as combining a time-series model, a physics-based model and a language model to predict a facility’s state. Orbital analyzes sensor streams while incorporating physical and chemical constraints, recognizes equipment limits and operator activity, and enables technicians to run simulations of how a change in one part of a facility could affect the rest of its operations.
Applied Computing emphasizes speed: it claims Orbital can flag anomalies, investigate root causes and model whether a proposed fix will create problems elsewhere in minutes. Adamson says tasks that formerly took days or weeks to investigate can be compressed into seconds, which can help reduce energy use and preserve output.
Market traction, revenue and partnerships
The startup reports it moved from stealth to double-digit millions in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in under 18 months. Adamson said Orbital is already in use at some “large, publicly listed” upstream oil and gas, downstream refining and petrochemical companies, but he declined to provide exact customer counts.
Partners include Indian energy company Wipro and KBR. KBR has integrated Orbital into its INSITE 3.0 digital platform for energy projects and is using the product in ammonia production. Applied Computing also said it is working with a “major U.S. upstream operator” and expects to announce a partnership with a European oil major in the coming weeks.
Competition and the company’s positioning
Applied Computing enters a market with established industrial software vendors and specialized AI startups. Competitors and adjacent players include AspenTech (simulation and AI-powered modeling for upstream, refining and chemical operations), AVEVA (physics-based process simulation, optimization and what-if modeling), and data-layer and analysis providers such as Cognite and Seeq.
Adamson argues the company’s competitive advantage is not merely access to industrial data or process know-how but assembling AI researchers to build a model that can compete with Orbital. “It’s an AI problem. It’s not a data problem, and it’s not an energy problem,” he said. “If you’re a tier-one AI researcher, where are you going to work? … I don’t think Shell’s on that list.”
He also noted the value of operational data that Orbital receives through deployments: operational data from refineries and other energy facilities is generally not public, and simulated datasets cannot fully reproduce conditions inside a working plant.
Use of funds and expansion plans
Applied Computing plans to use the $20 million to expand internationally, hire for research and engineering roles, and pursue additional deployments with energy clients. The company said it has opened an office in Houston this week, adding to its London headquarters and operational hub in Bengaluru. Adamson said the U.S. office brings the startup closer to two existing North American customers and that plans for expansion into the Middle East are underway.
