Collisons' Stripe to add 1,000 Irish jobs

Stripe is to add “at least” 1,000 jobs in Dublin over the next five years, after a new fundraising round of $600m (€502m) brought its valuation to $95bn (€79.4bn).

The Irish government’s Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, managed by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) invested €42m ($50m) as part of the fundraising.

The online payments firm founded by Limerick’s Collison brothers is now the most valuable ever private technology company in Silicon Valley.

It also makes both Patrick and John Collison Ireland’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, with individual paper fortunes that could now be valued at around $10bn.

Stripe employs over 300 people in its Dublin engineering hub at present, which also serves as the international headquarters of the business.

"We're investing a ton more in Europe this year, particularly in Ireland” said John Collison, President and co-founder of Stripe. “Ireland is now a leading tech capital of Europe, with great talent and companies emerging all the time, we’re keen to help cement that position”.

The company says that Dublin is Stripe’s fastest-growing international office and is home to a broad range of teams.

Stripe processes payments in 42 countries, counting clients such as Deliveroo, N26, Intercom and Donedeal among its thousands of customers.

It now also counts more than 50 companies that process more than $1 billion annually as customers. Enterprise revenue is now both Stripe’s largest and its fastest growing segment, the company said, more than doubling year over year.

Stripe's latest funding round makes the company almost twice as valuable as Twitter ($54bn) and Spotify ($53bn) and half again as valuable as Dell ($67bn).

“I welcome this announcement by Stripe and the NTMA through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund’s investment in its fundraising round,” said Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe. “This signals exciting new plans for Ireland, for job creation and for the future growth of so many more companies. Through the NTMA we are investing in a way that delivers a brighter economic future for our country, and that means brighter days ahead for our people.”

The company says that it will “double down” on its Dublin headquarters in 2021 to serve the surge in demand coming from across the region.

“Europe is home to many of the world’s most exciting and dynamic tech companies, and also to century-old brands intelligently adapting to the internet economy,” said Eileen O’Mara, head of EMEA revenue and growth.

Around 14pc of commerce takes place online today, despite the global economy accelerating its shift to online in 2020. Stripe says that its mission is to “grow the GDP of the internet, making it easy for ambitious companies everywhere to grow their business”.

The company says that it will continue to build its global payments and treasury network this year, expanding its software and services. Stripe will also soon be available to more businesses in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Thailand and the UAE.

“We’re investing in building the infrastructure that will power internet commerce in 2030 and beyond,” said Dhivya Suryadevara, Stripe’s chief financial officer. “The pandemic taught us many things about society, including how much can be achieved—and paid for—online, but the internet still isn’t the engine for global economic progress that it could be. We’re laser focused on accelerating the growth of ambitious businesses. The opportunity ahead is much larger for Stripe than it was when the company was started 10 years ago”.

Stripe users in Ireland include organisations such as the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation, Barretstown, Flipdish and the GAA.

“Stripe is an accelerator of global economic growth and a leader in sustainable finance," said Conor O'Kelly, CEO of NTMA. "We are convinced that, despite making great progress over the last 10 years, most of Stripe’s success is yet to come. We’re delighted to back Ireland’s and Europe’s most prominent success story, and, in doing so, to help millions of other ambitious companies become more competitive in the global economy”.

Online Editors