Applied Computing wants to provide oil and gas operators with an AI model for the entire facility

Applied Computing, a London-based startup that builds AI modeling for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries, has raised a $20 million Series A round led by engineering giant KBR, with Databricks Ventures participating.

Founded in 2023, the startup targets oil, gas, refining and petrochemical systems, where a single facility can have thousands of sensors that measure everything from temperature and pressure to speed and viscosity. Although there is a large market for helping energy companies solve the data tracking problem, fragmentation presents a major obstacle.

Institutions are therefore making operational decisions using less than 8% of the data available to them, says Applied Computing founder and CEO Callum Adamson (pictured above, right). Workers are already collecting much of this information, he said, but are finding it difficult to integrate sensor readings, engineering documents, and physics and chemistry quickly enough to analyze and make predictions.

“Getting those three data sources to communicate in real time. That’s the real key,” he told TechCrunch.

Unlike large linguistic models, which predict the next word, Applied Computing says its basic model, Orbital, combines a time series model, a physics-based model, and a linguistic model to predict the environment. It does this by analyzing sensor readings, remembering physics and chemistry, and recognizing the constraints of the facility’s equipment and user activity. It also allows experts to make simulations of how a change in one part of a facility can affect all of its operations.

Basically, Applied Computing is the speed of installation: It says Orbital can flag anomalies, investigate what’s causing them, and show that a proposed fix could cause problems elsewhere in the area, all within minutes. Adamson says the product can compress investigations that previously took days or weeks to seconds, helping operators reduce energy consumption and conserve output.

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

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

However, Applied Computing is entering a market dominated by industrial software providers and highly focused AI startups. AspenTech sells simulation and AI-powered modeling software for upstream operations, refining and chemical operations, while AVEVA offers process physics-based simulation, optimization, and “what-if” modeling for industrial plants. Cognite and Seeq manage the data layer, help organizations analyze industrial data, and use AI to design workflows.

Adamson says the company’s moat is not access to industrial data or processing knowledge, but to bring AI researchers together to create a model that can compete with Orbital.

“It’s an AI problem. It’s not a data problem, and it’s not a power problem,” he said. “If you’re a first-tier 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 from its deployments. Operational data from refineries and other energy facilities is often not publicly available, he said, while simulated data can reproduce what happens inside an operating facility.

A KBR partnership could help the company, too. Adamson said the partnership gives Applied Computing access to operational data, industry expertise, and presentations to many potential customers.

Applied Computing plans to spend $20 million to expand internationally, hire research and engineering roles, and explore deployments with potential clients.

The company on Thursday said it has opened an office in Houston, adding to its headquarters in London and an office in Bengaluru. Adamson said the US base puts the startup close to two existing customers in North America, and Middle East expansion is also in the works.