Applied Computing raises $20M to sell oil and gas operators a foundation model for the whole plant
Applied Computing raised a $20M Series A led by engineering firm KBR, with Databricks Ventures participating, for Orbital — a foundation model that fuses time-series, physics, and language models to predict a facility's state and compress anomaly investigations from days to minutes. The signal is the traction, not the pitch: double-digit-million ARR in under 18 months, with KBR embedding Orbital into its INSITE 3.0 platform for ammonia production. It pits a fresh entrant against entrenched suppliers like AspenTech and AVEVA on Adamson's bet that the moat is AI research talent, not access to industrial data.
Source: techcrunch.com ↗
Facilities consequently make operating decisions using less than 8% of the data available to them.
Callum Adamson, Applied Computing CEO
Why this matters
- → Compresses anomaly investigations from days to minutes, cutting operational downtime costs.
- → Challenges entrenched suppliers by betting moat is AI talent, not data access.
- → Fuses time-series + physics + language models to unlock 92% of sensor data currently unused.
Physics meets machine learning