A UNIVERSITY of Brighton graduate has sold the company he co-founded to Facebook.

Five years after graduating from the university, Will Blandin has sold his shares in his Silicon Valley company Wit.ai.

The company provides applications for speech recognition for devices including mobile phones and tablets.

Mr Blandin was awarded a first class honours degree in European computing before co-launching the California-based company.

Will, who will continue to work at the firm with Facebook after the acquisition, said he had “fond memories” of his time at the university.

One of his tutors, Jane Challenger Gillitt, course leader for European computing in the school of computing, engineering and mathematics, said: “Will was a very popular student and we’re delighted for him.”

Professor Andrew Lloyd, Dean of the university’s College of Life, Health and Physical Sciences, said: “It’s great to see our graduates doing so well.”

Mr Blandin studied at both the Paris Descartes University and the University of Brighton, resulting in a joint BSc and DEST Informatique.

A community of more than 6,000 developers use the online platform with Wit.ai already powering hundreds of apps and devices.

Wit.ai’s market niche is in building an open, distributed, community-based platform that makes it easy for developers to build apps that users can talk to.

This links with Facebook’s mission to connect everyone around the world and build new experiences for its 1.3 billion people on the platform.

Wit.ai, on its blog post, said “Facebook has the resources and talent to help us take the next step.”

The company also thanked the mentors, developers and investors who helped them get off the ground.