Applied Computing has secured $20 million in Series A funding to advance Orbital, an AI platform designed to integrate sensor data, engineering insights, and physical models for oil, gas, and petrochemical plants. The startup seeks to overcome data fragmentation challenges that limit operators’ ability to fully utilize their existing data.
- Orbital AI model integrates sensor, engineering, and physics data for faster insights
- Series A funding led by KBR supports global expansion and engineering hires
- Current users include large upstream, refining, and petrochemical companies
What happened
Applied Computing, a startup founded in 2023 and based in London, announced a $20 million Series A funding round led by engineering giant KBR with participation from Databricks Ventures. The company is developing Orbital, a foundational AI model that uniquely combines real-time sensor data, engineering documentation, and physics and chemistry models tailored for the oil, gas, refining, and petrochemical sectors.
By integrating these diverse data sources, Orbital enables operators to quickly identify anomalies, investigate root causes, and simulate the impact of potential fixes within minutes. This dramatically reduces the time and complexity of plant operations decision-making, which traditionally relies on fragmented data and lengthy manual analysis.
Why it matters
Energy facilities generate vast amounts of data through thousands of sensors capturing variables such as temperature, pressure, velocity, and viscosity. However, industry operators typically leverage less than 8% of this data due to challenges in assimilating heterogeneous sources rapidly enough to inform critical decisions. Applied Computing’s approach addresses these limitations by delivering an AI model that accelerates insight generation across the entire plant.
Such capability promises to improve operational efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and maintain consistent output. The startup’s rapid progression to double-digit millions in annual recurring revenue within 18 months signals strong market demand. Additionally, partnerships with established players like KBR — which is embedding Orbital into its INSITE 3.0 platform — and Indian energy company Wipro provide strategic support for scaling and adoption.
What to watch next
Applied Computing has opened a new office in Houston to better serve North American clients and plans expansion into the Middle East. The company is working with a major U.S. upstream operator and intends to announce a collaboration with a European oil major soon, indicating growing industry traction across key global markets.
The startup faces competition from well-established industrial software vendors like AspenTech, AVEVA, Cognite, and Seeq, which offer various simulation and AI-enhanced solutions. Applied Computing differentiates itself by focusing on assembling top AI talent to build a proprietary foundation model and by leveraging proprietary operational data from ongoing deployments to refine Orbital’s performance.