AI startup driven by Imperial alumni closes £9m seed funding round

Applied Computing’s Orbital platform allows engineers to interrogate refineries and chemical plants for possible efficiencies and environmental gains.

Applied Computing, an artificial intelligence company driven by Imperial alumni, has raised £9 million in investment, one of the largest seed funding rounds to date in the British AI sector.

The company is developing AI systems that can optimise industrial processes, beginning with those in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries. By building and combining different kinds of AI model, it has produced a platform that engineers can use to interrogate the vast amount of data generated by modern industrial installations.

An early test case was the ABB Carbon Capture Pilot Plant at Imperial, which the company used to benchmark its system’s predictive capabilities.

Applied Computing is a great example of a ‘second-generation’ alumni company, where earlier experience builds into even greater success. Ben Mumby-Croft Imperial Enterprise Lab

“As energy and chemical demand rises steeply at a global level, it is crucial that these essential industries transform themselves,” said Dr Sam Tukra, the company’s Chief AI Officer and an Imperial alumnus. “Artificial intelligence can deliver significant financial and environmental improvements to benefit everyone on the planet.”

The company is moving fast. It has doubled in size since January and plans to follow this substantial seed round with a Series A round in the second half of 2025.

“It’s absolutely brilliant to see the fundraising success of Applied Computing,” said Ben Mumby-Croft, Director of Entrepreneurship, Imperial Enterprise Lab. “We’ve previously supported the team on their student ventures, and this is a great example of a ‘second-generation’ alumni company, where earlier experience builds into even greater success. It’s also a testament to the strength and continuity of the Imperial ecosystem.”

Serial entrepreneurs

Dr Tukra completed his PhD in artificial intelligence and 3D computer vision at the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery in 2022. Along the way, he created a startup company, Third Eye Intelligence, to develop an early warning system for organ failure.

He was supported through Enterprise Lab programmes such as the Venture Catalyst Challenge and the MedTech SuperConnector, and was mentored by expert in residence Callum Adamson. After Third Eye Intelligence ran its course, they stayed in touch and in 2023 hatched a plan to launch Applied Computing, with Mr Adamson as chief executive.

The company went on to recruit most of its AI team from Imperial, along with other key hires, such as Westen MacIntosh, an Imperial Business School alumnus who is now director of AI and digital transformation in the company’s commercial team.

Mr MacIntosh was also mentored by Mr Adamson while at Imperial, for a project to develop a charity fundraising startup. When plans for Applied Computing started to come together, he left that company and came on board.

“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,” said Fred Destin, founder of Stride.VC, which led the seed funding round.

Optimising processes

Applied Computing’s platform, called Orbital, combines three AI models. The first analyses time series data, making predictions about how a process will perform under different conditions and with different process settings, to achieve different results.

Orbital combines deep learning, physics and language understanding to provide transparent, real-time decisions operators can trust. Dr Sam Tukra Applied Computing

The second is a physical model, which understands the dynamics of refining and chemical engineering. This provides a reality check on the predictions, to make sure impossible demands are not made on the process.

And the third is a large language model that has been trained on chemical engineering terms, so that it can talk to process engineers in their own language.

"Orbital is an AI system designed specifically for the industrial world,” Dr Tukra says. “It combines deep learning, physics, and language understanding to provide transparent, real-time decisions operators can trust, because transformation doesn’t just need intelligence, it needs credibility.”

The company is currently deploying its system in working installations. “Orbital is already delivering at production scale in some of the most complex industrial environments on the planet,” said Mr Adamson. “It’s improving margins, reducing emissions and laying the groundwork for a fundamentally more intelligent energy system.”

Applied to the ABB Carbon Capture Pilot Plant at Imperial, for example, the company’s system achieved a 53.7% improvement in carbon dioxide concentration prediction compared to internal models. It also detected early-stage anomalies with 99.1% accuracy, enabling proactive maintenance to take place.

Applied Computing will showcase its latest results at a demo day in London on 10 June.

Main picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images