From Castletroy College to over €20 billion in business for entrepreneur brothers

FROM Castletroy College to becoming billionaires, brothers Patrick and John Collison celebrate ten years in business with company Stripe.

The pair grew up in Dromineer Co Tipperary and attended Castletroy College before graduating in 2019.

Patrick won the BT Young Scientist​ of the Year award as a 16-year-old in 2005 during his studies in Castletroy College.

The pair founded Stripe in 2010 with a vision to create a platform to make it easier for small businesses to accept payments from anywhere.

The company marked its tenth anniversary serving Irish businesses, with the release of data revealing widespread, rapid growth in the country’s internet economy.

A financial infrastructure platform for businesses, Stripe over the last decade, conditions for Ireland’s internet businesses have improved dramatically. 

Homegrown startups now have access to a more established venture capital ecosystem, a talent pool trained at the world’s largest technology companies and a network of experienced founders.

Many of these companies have built tools that also help less technical businesses join the internet economy, enabling a dramatic increase in online economic activity across the country. 

Stripe’s data provides a window into Ireland’s growth compared to 2013 where only a few hundred Irish businesses used Stripe.

Now, tens of thousands of ventures run on Stripe, with hundreds more joining every week. 

Over the last decade, Irish businesses have processed more than €20 billion on Stripe.

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Ireland’s software platforms and established digital native companies account for a significant portion of this cross-border money movement, with more than 80% of their payment volume coming from overseas last year. 

Limerick saw a 34% ratio of cross-border transactions processed on Stripe over the last decade.

John Collison, Co-founder and President of Stripe said; “Thinking back to when we launched Stripe, Ireland’s tech scene is like night and day. Tech founders would find it impossibly difficult to raise money and compete for talent, and small businesses simply didn’t have the tools to operate online. Nowadays, Ireland produces software companies at industrial scale, and the internet economy is everywhere. With new talent coming through courses like the University of Limerick’s Immersive Software Engineering and accelerators like NDRC, I’m excited to see what Irish founders build next.”

County-level online economic growth can occur in a variety of ways, sometimes it’s the result of a large homegrown enterprise transitioning online. 

Other times, it’s the result of many small local businesses ramping up internet commerce. 

The next decade looks particularly promising, technology that helps businesses operate online will soon permeate the  Irish economy, unlocking growth for even more traditional industries. 

Every value chain will be redesigned around the internet, and new innovations from artificial intelligence to fintech regulation will unleash business models that aren’t possible today. 

With extra help for fast-growing startups, many more generations of technology companies will be built in Ireland.