Stripe is one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world with a $65 billion valuation in its 2023 funding round. Founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison from a small village in rural Ireland, it is one of the most remarkable startup stories of the modern era.
The Numbers
Stripe processes hundreds of billions in payment volume annually and generates estimated revenue of $14+ billion. It powers payments for millions of businesses worldwide including Amazon, Google, Shopify and most major internet companies. See the full Stripe revenue profile on WhoEarns.
From Dromineer to San Francisco
Patrick and John Collison grew up in Dromineer, a village of approximately 100 people in County Tipperary, Ireland. Patrick won Ireland's Young Scientist competition at 16. He was accepted to MIT but left for a Thiel Fellowship — a $100,000 grant from Peter Thiel for entrepreneurs willing to stop out of university. John dropped out of Harvard after one semester. Together they built Stripe in 2010.
Why Stripe Beat Everyone
Before Stripe, integrating payment processing into a website took days of work and required merchant accounts with banks. Stripe reduced that to seven lines of code. The developer-first approach — letting engineers integrate payments without business negotiations — was a genuinely new idea in fintech. Compare with other fintech companies on WhoEarns' tech giants category.
The IPO Question
Stripe has been expected to IPO for years but has repeatedly delayed. Its employees and early investors are watching closely — an IPO at anything close to the 2021 peak valuation of $95 billion would be transformative. Browse all tech founder net worth profiles on WhoEarns.