The Collison brothers' Stripe is currently winning from the US presidential election. Image: Africa Studio/Shutterstock
While the US presidential race between Clinton and Trump is high on drama, a tech company called Stripe – led by Irish entrepreneurs – earned around $1.5m in spending by both candidates in August.
Stripe is a digital payments company that enables fluid and instant payments online for websites.
In August, the Clinton campaign spent $1m on Stripe’s services while the Trump camp spent $500,000 during the same period.
The company, started by Irish brothers John and Patrick Collison, was recently valued at $5bn after raising close to $100m from investors, including card giant Visa.
According to Bloomberg, which is tracking the 2016 presidential money race, the Clinton campaign has so far spent $423m out of a $753m war chest while the Trump campaign has spent $180m out of $372m.
Stripe makes the numbers
Patrick and John Collison, founders of Stripe. Image: Stripe
According to the report, Clinton has burned through 82pc of her campaign money while Trump has spent 70pc.
Both contenders are spending heavily on AV services, payroll, media placement, credit card payments, merchandise and travel.
Among the top vendors for the Trump campaign were web design firm Giles-Parscale and ad firm Rick Reed Media. In a top 10 list of vendors for the Trump campaign, Stripe came in at eight place with a spend of $500,000 in August on payment processing services.
In the Clinton camp, Stripe actually rates as the fifth highest vendor. It follows ad firm GMMB, HR firm ADP, and air transport firms Markham Productions and Executive Fliteways – with a spend of approximately $1m in August.
