They made their first $5m when they were teenagers. John and Patrick Collison at Stripe headquarters, San Francisco. Image: Stripe
Stripe founders John and Patrick Collison named on Forbes rich list.
Having recently seen their Silicon Valley start-up Stripe reach a $9bn valuation, the Collison brothers, John (26) and Patrick (28), have each amassed wealth valued at $1.02bn apiece, according to the Forbes Billionaires list.
Stripe recently raised $150m in a round led by CapitalG and General Catalyst, in addition to its existing investors, including Sequoia Capital. The company was previously valued at $5bn after raising close to $100m from investors like card giant Visa.
Stripe was founded six years ago when Patrick was 22 and John was 19. The company’s technology platform enables hundreds of thousands of businesses to securely accept payments and create new revenue streams.
The billionaire club
Among the other young billionaires are Alexandra Andresen (20), Katharina Andresen (21), Gustav Magnar Witzoe (23), Snap’s Evan Spiegel (26), Ludwig Theodor Braun (27), Bobby Murphy (28), Wang Han (29) and Lukas Walton (30).
Unsurprisingly, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates topped the overall list with a wealth of $86bn, followed by Warren Buffet ($75.6bn) and Jeff Bezos ($72.8bn).
Other tech founders in the top 10 were Mark Zuckerberg ($56bn) and Larry Ellison ($52.2bn).
As well as the Collisons, other Irish businesspeople to make the rich list include Indian-Irish businessman Pallonji Mistry, Digicel founder Denis O’Brien, John Grayken, John Dorrance, Dermot Desmond and Martin Naughton.
