LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Self-made millionaires from their early teens , the Collison brothers have faced a meteoric rise to the top of the fintech industry with their company , Stripe

Founded in 2009 – when they were but 21 and 19 , respectively – both Collisons ’ net worth exceeded $ 1bn before they ’ d even reached 30 . Receiving a market valuation of US $ 95bn at the end of 2022 , Stripe is now the world ’ s leading fintech company . But how did the brothers get there ?

Born in Dromineer Raised in Dromineer , a small town in Ireland ’ s County Tipperary , it ’ s almost fitting that the tech-giant siblings grew up with limited access to the internet , needing the help of satellite links to access the world wide web . As such , the internet represented “ a connection to the greater world ” for Patrick and “ had a lot of significance ”.

Despite the disadvantage , the brothers showed signs of success in tech from an early age . Patrick was taking computing courses at the University of Limerick aged eight , before going on to win the 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition award at 16 for his LISPtype programming language software , Croma .

Starting up Patrick and John set up the software company Shuppa aged 19 and 17 respectively in Limerick . In need of funding , the brothers had no luck with Enterprise Ireland but did receive interest from Y Combinator , of Silicon Valley .

18 June 2023