• 2 min read
Applied Computing lands $20M for plantwide energy model
London startup Applied Computing raised a $20 million Series A to scale Orbital, its AI model for oil, gas, refining, and petrochemical plants.
Image: TechCrunch
Applied Computing has raised a $20 million Series A led by KBR, with participation from Databricks Ventures, as the London startup pushes its Orbital model deeper into oil, gas, refining, and petrochemical operations.
Founded in 2023, the company is trying to tackle a core problem inside industrial facilities: too much fragmented data and too little usable insight. A single plant can have thousands of sensors tracking variables such as temperature, pressure, velocity, and viscosity, but operators make decisions using less than 8% of the data available to them, according to co-founder and CEO Callum Adamson.
“It’s getting those three data sources to talk to each other in real time. That’s the real key.”
Applied Computing says Orbital differs from a standard large language model by combining:
Recommended reading
Europe’s chip push won’t end US cloud reliance
- a time series model
- a physics-based model
- a language model
The goal is to predict the state of an entire facility by analyzing sensor readings alongside engineering documentation, physical and chemical constraints, equipment limits, and operator activity. The system also lets technicians simulate how a change in one part of a plant could ripple through the rest of the operation.
The company’s pitch is speed. Applied Computing claims Orbital can detect anomalies, investigate likely causes, and test whether a fix might create new problems elsewhere in the plant within minutes. Adamson told TechCrunch that tasks that once took days or weeks can now be compressed into seconds.
That message appears to be resonating. Applied Computing says it went from stealth to double-digit millions in annual recurring revenue in under 18 months. Adamson said Orbital is already used by some large, publicly listed companies across upstream oil and gas, downstream refining, and petrochemicals, though he declined to name customers or say how many it has.
Partnerships and expansion plans
The startup’s partners include Wipro and KBR. KBR has integrated Orbital into its INSITE 3.0 digital platform for energy projects and is using the product for ammonia production. Adamson also said Applied Computing is working with a major U.S. upstream operator and expects to announce a partnership with a European oil major in the coming weeks.
It is entering a crowded field that includes industrial software incumbents such as AspenTech and AVEVA, along with data-focused players like Cognite and Seeq. Adamson argued the real barrier is not simply access to industrial data, but recruiting the researchers capable of building a competing model.
Applied Computing said it will use the new funding to expand internationally, hire in research and engineering, and pursue more deployments with energy customers. On Thursday, the company also said it had opened a Houston office alongside its headquarters in London and operational hub in Bengaluru, with a Middle East expansion also planned.
Enterprise Editor
Marcus follows the money. He covers enterprise software, cloud architecture, and the tectonic shifts in Big Tech strategy. He translates dense earnings calls and complex M&A activity into actionable insights about where the industry is actually heading. If a tech giant makes a silent pivot, Marcus is usually the first to notice.
via TechCrunch
