Limerick brothers get US$2m from Silicon Valley investors

Limerick brothers, Patrick and John Collison, have received a US$2m investment from Silicon Valley, according to a report by TechCrunch.

The brothers began working on the idea for their latest venture, Stripe, while they were studying at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University in the US. The company makes it simple for website operators to accept payments online.

The brothers relocated to California to find funding for Stripe, which is now thought to be valued at about US$20m.

The TechCrunch report states the company has already taken in a venture round of US$2m from Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, as well as Sequoia Capital, Andreesen Horowitz and SV Angel.

Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, was also an early investor of Facebook.

In a significant endorsement, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington said Sequoia partner Michael Moritz, who is involved in Stripe, is “not known to spend a lot of time on start-ups he doesn’t think will have huge exits”.

In 2008, Patrick, aged 22 (pictured), and John, 20, sold their software company Auctomatic to Canadian firm Live Current Media for an estimated US$5m.