London, UK, 28th May 2025: British AI company Applied Computing, focused on foundation models built specifically for the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Industries, announces a £9 million seed funding round led by Stride.VC with Repeat.vc.
The raise, among the largest ever for a UK-based AI firm at seed stage, signals growing investor appetite for energy tech that goes beyond renewables to address the legacy infrastructure that still powers the world.
Bringing Superintelligence to the energy industry
Orbital is Applied Computing’s flagship product, built using multi-foundation AI. It’s powered by a new class of models built to optimise the physical world – not just language models but also time series, physics and chemical engineering models delivering explainable AI that can be trusted in real-world applications.
Orbital utilises 100% of available data from downstream energy facilities – compared to 8% captured by traditional methods – and is outperforming previously benchmarked state-of-the-art software by 90% in key metrics.
Applied Computing is developing this advanced AI for the heavy industries essential to human life. Firstly for oil, gas and petrochemicals.
Globally, each refinery supports infrastructure relied upon by up to 18 million people – from food and transport to medicine and manufacturing. As policy and investment increasingly shift toward net zero, regulators and investors alike are waking up to a stark reality: despite historic progress in renewables, the energy transition will cost around $110 trillion over the next three decades, with investment stalling.
Applied Computing offers a more grounded path forward: using superintelligent AI to make existing energy infrastructure radically more efficient, secure and climate-aligned. Orbital isn’t about replacing what exists – it’s about making it work smarter. Superintelligence that drives down costs, energy consumption, and carbon emissions.
Real-world traction and results
Founded by Callum Adamson (CEO) and Dr. Sam Tukra (Chief AI Officer), Applied Computing is already working with some of the world’s most complex industrial sites, including one of the largest oil refineries on the planet.
In live deployments, Orbital is delivering an estimated 75% cost saving versus traditional cloud-based data platforms, with a payback period of under 10 weeks. By combining foundation models in language, physics, chemical engineering and time series forecasting, and deploying fully on-edge, Orbital provides real-time intelligence that improves margins – without sending sensitive operational data offsite.
Strategic hires and growth
The £9m seed round follows strong early momentum and strategic hires from Shell, Palantir, BP Launchpad and Imperial College. The company has doubled in size since January and is preparing for a Series A in H2 2025.
“There is a comforting fiction that we can simply swap out the old for the new,” said Dr. Sam Tukra, Chief AI Officer. “But the scale of the transition is immense. The infrastructure of heavy industry cannot be erased — it must be transformed. That’s why we built Orbital. Without the energy industry, life as we know it is impossible. Refiners and petrochemical firms are the lifeblood of civilisations, yet their existence is frozen in time as many of the facilities that power our world are nearly 50 years old. As energy and chemical demand rises steeply at a global level, it is crucial that these essential industries transform themselves. Artificial intelligence can deliver significant financial and environmental improvements to benefit everyone on the planet.”
“Refining is where complexity, scale, and impact converge. It’s not just hard – it’s the apex of validation. If you can build intelligence that works here, it will work anywhere.” said Callum Adamson, CEO of Applied Computing. “Orbital is already delivering at production scale in some of the most complex industrial environments on the planet. It’s improving margins, reducing emissions and laying the groundwork for a fundamentally more intelligent energy system. I couldn’t be prouder of the team, and this is just the beginning.”
Fred Destin, founder of Stride.VC, commented: “Beyond LLM hype, companies such as Applied Computing are trailblazing a profound transformation in the efficiency with which our most critical industries are run, starting with fossil fuels, and demonstrating the promise of responsible Artificial Intelligence in driving profound positive change for humans and the planet. Small bands of highly competent rebels like Sam, Callum and the Applied Computing team show what is possible in transforming huge industries like Energy and Petrochemicals at speed. What is more, this is proudly Built in Britain”.
As the energy sector’s ageing infrastructure faces narrowing margins and pressure to meet emissions benchmarks – both in the UK and globally – Orbital is coming to the market at a critical time to support these critical sectors.
The results of Applied Computing’s innovation in this space will be featured in a demo day on 10 June, where Orbital’s capabilities will be on full display for industry leaders, investors, journalists and policymakers alike. This will include a high-profile case study of Orbital’s implementation in a real-world environment, with more details available here.
