Applied Computing wants to give oil and gas operators an AI model for the entire plant

Applied computersa London-based startup building a foundational AI model for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries has raised a $20 million Series A led by engineering giant KBR, with participation from Databricks Ventures.

Founded in 2023, the startup focuses on oil, gas, refining and petrochemical systems, where a single facility can have thousands of sensors measuring everything from temperature and pressure to speed and viscosity. While there is a huge market Fragmentation is a significant obstacle to helping energy companies solve the data tracking problem.

As a result, facilities make operational decisions based on less than 8% of available data, says Callum Adamson, co-founder and CEO of Applied Computing (pictured above, right). Operators are already collecting much of this information, he said, but they are struggling to combine the sensor measurements, technical documentation and physics and chemistry quickly enough to analyze and make predictions.

“It allows these three data sources to talk to each other in real time. That’s the real key,” he told TechCrunch.

Unlike large language models, which predict the next word, Applied Computing combines the base model, Orbital, a time series model, a physics-based model and a language model to predict the state of a facility. This is done by analyzing sensor measurements, taking physics and chemistry into account, and recognizing the limitations of the equipment and operator activities. It also allows engineers to run simulations of how a change in one part of a facility could affect the rest of its operations.

At its core, Applied Computing is speed: It claims Orbital can identify anomalies, investigate what’s causing them, and model whether a proposed solution could cause problems elsewhere in the facility, all in minutes. Adamson claims the product can compress investigations that previously took days or weeks into seconds, allowing operators to reduce energy consumption and maintain production.

That promise of speed seems to have found believers. The startup says it went from stealth to double-digit millions in annual recurring revenue in less than 18 months. Adamson said Orbital is in use by a number of “large, publicly traded” upstream oil and gas, downstream refining and petrochemical companies, although he declined to say how many customers it has.

Partners include Indian energy company Wipro and KBR, which has integrated Orbital into its INSITE 3.0 digital platform for energy projects and uses the product for ammonia production. Adamson said the startup is also working with a “major US upstream operator” and plans to announce a partnership with a European oil company in the coming weeks.

Yet Applied Computing is entering a market with both established industrial software vendors and more focused AI startups. AspenTech sells simulation and AI-powered modeling software for upstream, refining and chemical operations AVEVA provides physics-based process simulation, optimization and ‘what-if’ modeling for industrial plants. Cognite And Seeq focuses on the data layer, helping facilities analyze industrial data and applying AI to design workflows.

Adamson states that the company’s goal is not access to industrial data or process knowledge, but rather bringing together 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 frontline AI researcher, where are you going to work? … I don’t think Shell is on that list.”

Adamson also pointed to the data Orbital receives through its deployments. Operational data from refineries and other energy facilities is generally not publicly available, he said, while simulated data cannot fully reproduce what happens in an operating plant.

The KBR partnership can also help the company. Adamson said the partnership gives Applied Computing access to operational data and industry expertise, as well as introductions to more potential customers.

Applied Computing plans to use the $20 million to expand internationally, hire for research and engineering positions and explore deployments with energy customers.

The company said Thursday it has also opened an office in Houston, complementing its London headquarters and operations center in Bengaluru. Adamson said the U.S. base brings the startup closer to two existing customers in North America, and an expansion into the Middle East is also in the works.