Start-ups Blueprints and ProvenMetal set sights on global growth with AI-led solutions in fintech and hardware.
Four Irish founders are preparing to take their companies to Silicon Valley after securing places in Y Combinator’s Summer 2026 batch, one of the most influential startup accelerators in the world.
Dublin-based startups Blueprints and ProvenMetal have been selected for the prestigious programme, joining a lineage of companies that includes Stripe, Airbnb and Reddit.
“We booked our flights an hour before the first interview, and as soon as we landed we filled our calendar with prospective customers and industry experts”
Both ventures are building businesses at the intersection of artificial intelligence and high-impact industries, spanning financial markets and advanced manufacturing.
Blueprints for tomorrow
Blueprints, founded by Ryan Morrissey and Bence Redmond, is developing a platform that allows users to translate plain-English views on real-world events into automated trading strategies on prediction markets. The company has gained early traction, processing more than $500,000 in trading volume from over 250 users since launching its public beta. It has also secured backing from Ireland’s National Digital Research Centre.
The start-up traces its beginnings to Morrissey’s internship at Stripe in San Francisco, where exposure to financial infrastructure and emerging technologies shaped his ambition to build in the sector. On returning to Ireland, he teamed up with Redmond, and together they developed the initial version of Blueprints while studying in the Immersive Software Engineering programme at the University of Limerick. They formally incorporated the business in January 2025 before committing to it full-time.
“Prediction markets reward genuine knowledge,” said Morrissey. “If you have a deep understanding of something, whether that is geopolitics, sport or a particular industry, you can put that insight to work in a way that simply is not possible anywhere else. We built Blueprints so that people can actually act on what they know.”
ProvenMetal has vision
In a different field, ProvenMetal is targeting a longstanding challenge in electronics manufacturing with its benchtop X-ray inspection systems. Co-founded by Johnny Doyle and Will Carkner, the company uses AI to detect faults in circuit boards before they are deployed in critical applications such as aerospace, medical devices and defence systems.
The founders see an opportunity to strengthen domestic electronics manufacturing by improving the speed and reliability of quality assurance processes. Their current direction represents a decisive pivot from an earlier venture, Syncra, which focused on building management technology.
When the pair first applied to Y Combinator, they received candid feedback that their existing idea lacked sufficient scale. Already considering a change in direction, they chose to pursue a more ambitious thesis in electronics manufacturing and travelled to San Francisco to demonstrate their commitment.
Their persistence paid off. After an initial interview, Y Combinator invited them back two weeks later for a second round, requesting evidence of customer demand and a working prototype. The founders moved quickly, holding more than 30 meetings with manufacturers and industry experts, securing five letters of intent, and building a software prototype ahead of the follow-up interview. This effort secured them a place in the Summer 2026 batch with their new company.
“We were aware that our original idea had a ceiling and had been considering making a pivot,” said Doyle. “When YC said the same, we decided to make that jump with full conviction in the thesis. We booked our flights an hour before the first interview, and as soon as we landed we filled our calendar with prospective customers and industry experts. We both want to solve globally critical problems. ProvenMetal is how we are going to do it.”
From Dublin to Silicon Valley
The founders behind both start-ups are alumni of Patch, a community backed by OpenAI and Stripe that supports emerging technologists, scientists and entrepreneurs at Dogpatch Labs in Dublin.
As part of Y Combinator’s Summer programme, the companies will spend three months in San Francisco refining their products and business models before presenting to investors at Demo Day in September. For both teams, the experience offers access to global networks, mentorship and capital as they scale their ambitions beyond Ireland.
Blueprints aims to make prediction markets more accessible by simplifying how individuals participate, while ProvenMetal is positioning itself within the hardware supply chain, a sector attracting renewed attention as countries seek resilience in advanced manufacturing.
Their selection underlines the continued presence of Irish-founded start-ups within top-tier global accelerator programmes, particularly in areas where artificial intelligence is reshaping established markets.
Image at top: Johnny Doyle and Will Carkner from ProvenMetal and Ryan Morrissey and Bence Redmond from Blueprints in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
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