A FINTECH company co-founded by Limerick’s Collison brothers is now worth over €64billion.
Stripe, co-founded in 2010 by the high-achieving Collison brothers, is now valued at around $70billon after a major Silicon Valley venture capital investor agreed to buy more than $860million in private shares from existing investors.
The investment came from Sequoia Capital, which now increases Stripe’s value to increase to the equivalent of over €64billion.
The Collison brothers attended Limerick’s Castletroy College for their secondary education, where Patrick Collison won the BT Young Scientist competition in 2005.
In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account, John Collison welcomed the investment, saying that “lots of firms say that they’re long-term oriented, but Sequoia actually is. 14 years after their first check in Stripe, they’re making their largest investment yet. (This is a secondary transaction; no funds will go to the company)”.
Stripe has also expanded its cryptocurrency integration in the European Union, allowing shoppers to buy Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and others using credit and debit cards.
The move is aimed at making it easier for normal transactions to happen using virtual payment methods, the company has said.
Stripe says that its online vendors can now add a crypto-purchasing ‘widget’ on their website and that they will handle issues such as charges, disputes, and ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) regulatory responsibilities relating to the online crypto payments.
John Egan, head of crypto at Stripe, said that “this expansion allows crypto companies to help European consumers buy cryptocurrencies quickly and easily”.
“Now, merchants who rely on Stripe’s onramp for things like conversion optimisation, identity verification, and fraud prevention can reach a more global audience. This lets them focus on growing their business and helping their customers,” Mr Egan said.
Stripe is headquartered in Dublin and San Francisco and is one of the world’s largest online payment companies.
