Applied Computing Secures $20 Mn Funding Led by KBR to Expand AI Solutions for Energy Sector

British industrial AI startup Applied Computing has raised $20 million in a funding round led by engineering and technology firm KBR, with Databricks Ventures joining as a new investor, as the company looks to expand its AI platform for energy operators globally.

The company also announced its entry into the US market by opening a new office in Houston, Texas. Headquartered in London, Applied Computing operates an engineering and operations hub in Bengaluru, India, as well as a new US presence.

The fresh capital will be used to accelerate international expansion, expand its research and engineering teams, and deepen commercial deployments of Orbital, the company’s flagship foundation AI model built specifically for energy operations.

Unlike general-purpose AI models, Orbital combines physics-grounded intelligence with chemical engineering, time-series forecasting, and language models to help energy operators improve efficiency, reduce emissions, strengthen reliability, and optimise decision-making across upstream, downstream, and petrochemical operations.

“It’s our mission to provide operators with a foundation model that unlocks advantage at scale while delivering pathways to production that are safer, more efficient and far less carbon intensive. KBR is a natural partner for that mission,” Callum Adamson, CEO and Co-Founder of Applied Computing, said in a statement.

Greg Conlon, Chief Digital and Development Officer at KBR, said the investment would strengthen the company’s AI capabilities across its technology portfolio. “Together, we’re redefining how AI powers the critical systems that drive global economic growth,” he said.

Julien Debard, Director of Energy and Utilities at Databricks, said the company decided to invest after seeing “how quickly operators can now move from experimentation to real operational value on the platform”.

The funding follows a series of commercial partnerships with KBR, Databricks and Wipro. Applied Computing also said it has signed a multi-year agreement with KBR to jointly develop exclusive AI products for the energy sector and plans to announce its first partnership with a European oil major in the coming weeks.