Quick Facts
Biography
John Collison (born 1990) is an Irish entrepreneur. He is best known for having co-founded Stripe with his brother, Patrick. The brothers are worth at least $1.1 billion each, after San Francisco-based Stripe raised $150 million from CapitalG, an investment division of Google parent company Alphabet, and General Catalyst Partners.
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 (having returned to finish secondary school at Castletroy College) 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 Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, 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 Partners valued the company at $9.2 billion.