Former University of Limerick students accepted into Silicon Valley accelerator programme

Former UL Immersive Software Engineering students accepted into Silicon Valley accelerator programme

University of Limerick Immersive Software Engineering students Ryan Morrissey and Bence Redmond have been accepted into the Silicon Valley accelerator programme

Two former University of Limerick Immersive Software Engineering students have been accepted into the Silicon Valley accelerator programme behind companies such as Stripe, Airbnb, Dropbox and Reddit.

Ryan Morrissey and Bence Redmond have travelled to San Francisco to join Y Combinator’s Summer 2026 cohort, one of the world’s most influential startup programmes.

They built the first version of their fintech start-up Blueprints while studying on UL‘s Immersive Software Engineering (ISE) programme.

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“ISE has played a big role in our success. Bence and I met during our first year of ISE when we were both class reps, which is how we built a working rapport. From there, we kept working together on small apps. We got our first taste of working on a startup together from an entrepreneur module where we built software to make solar panels more efficient. We realised we quite liked working together on startups,” Ryan said.  

Ryan and Bence went on to complete their respective internships, Ryan in Stripe and Bence in Amazon Web Services.

“Coming back from my time in Stripe I wanted to work another business and having had this existing experience with Bence we decided to do it together,” Ryan continued.  

Blueprints builds AI-powered tools for prediction market investors.

Prediction markets allow participants to trade on the outcomes of real-world events, from elections and economic decisions to sports and business developments.

Blueprints aims to use advances in AI to make these markets more accessible by allowing users to translate ideas and convictions directly into investment strategies.

“Prediction markets reward genuine knowledge. If you have a deep understanding of something, whether that’s geopolitics, sport, or a particular industry, you can put that insight to work in a way that simply isn’t possible anywhere else. We built Blueprints so that people can actually act on what they know,” Ryan explained.

The company has also been accepted into the National Digital Research Centre, Ireland’s national startup accelerator, and has processed more than $500,000 in trading volume from over 250 users since entering public beta.

Ryan and Bence registered the company in January 2025 before deciding to leave college to pursue the business full-time.

Commenting on Bence and Ryan’s success, Professor Stephen Kinsella said, “Everyone in Immersive Software Engineering is enormously proud of Bence and Ryan. We designed ISE to bring together ambitious students and ambitious companies, creating an environment where people build things, solve real problems, and take those solutions to the world. Bence and Ryan embody exactly that spirit.

“Their acceptance into Y Combinator is a remarkable achievement and a testament to their talent, hard work, and determination. We are delighted for them and, given what they have achieved throughout their time in ISE, not at all surprised to see them recognised by one of the world’s most prestigious startup accelerators.”

Ryan and Bence believe advances in artificial intelligence will make prediction markets significantly more accessible, enabling a broader range of people to participate in markets that have traditionally been dominated by highly engaged traders.

They will spend the next three months in San Francisco as part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2026 programme before presenting to investors at Demo Day in September.