London-based startup Applied Computing has secured a $20 million Series A round to scale its AI platform for oil, gas, refining and petrochemical operations. The round was led by engineering company KBR, with participation from Databricks Ventures.
Founded in 2023, the company is building a foundation model called Orbital to help industrial facilities interpret massive streams of sensor data alongside engineering records and physical process knowledge. In large plants, thousands of measurements can be generated at once, yet operators often struggle to unify them into a single real-time view.
Applied Computing says Orbital is designed to go beyond traditional language models by combining time-series analysis, physics-based reasoning and language understanding. The goal is to identify anomalies, explain likely causes and test how a change in one part of a facility could affect the rest of the system.
The startup says the platform can compress investigations that once took days into minutes, supporting faster decisions around efficiency, output and operational planning. It also reports rapid commercial traction, moving from stealth to double-digit millions in annual recurring revenue in less than 18 months.
Orbital is already being used by large energy and industrial companies, while KBR has integrated it into its INSITE 3.0 digital platform. Applied Computing also cites partnerships with Wipro and work with additional energy clients in North America and Europe.
With new funding, the company plans to expand internationally, grow its research and engineering teams, and deepen deployments across energy markets. As industrial AI matures, platforms like Orbital could help shape a more connected, predictive and efficient future for complex facilities.
