Applied Computing raises €17.4M with KBR to scale Orbital, its foundation AI for energy operations

Applied Computing, a London-based startup founded in 2023 by Callum Adamson (CEO) and Dr Sam Tukra (Chief AI Officer), has raised €17.4 million ($20 million) in a round led by KBR — the global engineering and technology firm — with Databricks Ventures joining as a new investor. The funding coincides with the company's formal entry into the United States, via a new office in Houston, Texas.

The company's flagship product, Orbital, is described as the first foundation AI model purpose-built for energy operations. The architecture differs from general-purpose AI tools applied to industrial settings: Orbital combines physics-informed intelligence with purpose-built chemical engineering models, time-series forecasting, and language models — an approach the company says allows it to utilise 100% of available data from downstream energy facilities, against the 8% that traditional methods typically capture. Applied Computing claims Orbital outperforms previously benchmarked state-of-the-art software by 90% on key metrics; the specific benchmarks are not independently specified in public sources.

An industrial lead, not a venture lead

The most notable feature of this round is who is leading it. KBR is not a VC: it is a global engineering firm with decades of work across oil, gas, chemicals, infrastructure, and government services. KBR has been deploying Applied Computing's Orbital in commercial production through its INSITE 3.0 platform — launched in March 2026 — and the two companies have entered a multi-year agreement to develop exclusive AI products for the energy sector. A customer leading the follow-on round is structurally different from a VC bet: it means the product has been evaluated under real operating conditions, not just in a sales process.

"We're very excited about what this technology could unlock across the full lifecycle for multiple industries," said Greg Conlon, KBR's Chief Digital and Development Officer. "This investment strengthens KBR's position at the forefront of applied AI and enables us to scale innovations across our full range of licensed technologies, with the potential to create a new paradigm for OpEx analytics and NextGen CapEx delivery."

Dan Jeavons, formerly head of AI at Shell, has joined as President. The hire is worth noting: Jeavons spent years building Shell's AI strategy and has first-hand knowledge of which categories of energy AI fail to leave pilot stage — and why. Applied Computing has also announced partnerships with Databricks and Wipro, and an initial ammonia production tie-up with KBR. Within weeks, the company says it will announce its first partnership with a European oil major.

The stage question

Applied Computing raised an explicit €10.7 million Seed in May 2025. Fourteen months later, this round carries no stage designation in any source reviewed: it is described as a "funding round." That may reflect nothing more than deliberate discretion. It may also reflect a note, SAFE, or strategic equity structure that doesn't map cleanly to standard stage taxonomy. Either way, it is not a standard Seed-to-A progression, and readers tracking the company's trajectory should note the gap.

The capital funds US expansion (the Houston office opens the North American energy market) and deepens Applied Computing's AI research function under Tukra. Operations now span London (headquarters), Bengaluru, and Houston.