John Collison


John Collison is an Irish billionaire entrepreneur. He is best known for having co-founded Stripe with his brother, Patrick. The brothers are worth at least $3.2 billion each, after San Francisco-based Stripe raised $150 million from CapitalG, an investment division of Google's parent company Alphabet Inc., and General Catalyst Partners. The brothers hold a controlling interest in Stripe and will be able to retain control should the company go public.

Biography

In 2007, Collison founded "Shuppa" with his older brother Patrick in Limerick, Ireland. The company later merged with Auctomatic, which was funded by Y Combinator, and Collison moved to Silicon Valley.
Auctomatic was a software company that built tools for the eBay platform. The company was also funded by Chris Sacca. Auctomatic was acquired for $5 million in March 2008, when Collison was 17.
In 2009, Collison received 8 A1 and 2 A2 grades in the Irish Leaving Certificate examination. He continued to study at Harvard University, commencing his studies in September 2009. Collison is a pilot and a pianist.
In 2010, Collison co-founded Stripe, which received backing from Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and Sequoia Capital.
In November 2016, the Collison brothers became the world's youngest self-made billionaires, worth at least $1.1 billion, after an investment in Stripe from CapitalG and General Catalyst valued the company at $9.2 billion.. In the same year, 2016, John was ranked by Forbes the 15th in the list America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40.
In 2018, Stripe, under the direction of the Collison brothers, contributed $1 million to California YIMBY, a pro-housing development lobbying organization. The Collison brothers are citizens of Ireland.