Stripe co-founders John and Patrick Collison have been included in Forbes's prestigious "30 under 30 Europe" list of leading innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
The Limerick-born brothers are among 10 Irish people in the annual list, which also includes UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) fighter Conor McGregor and chef Mark Moriarty.
The list includes 300 young innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders from across Europe who are under 30 years of age and who are seen as transforming business, technology, finance, media, healthcare, science, policy, social entrepreneurship, retail and the arts and entertainment.
The Collisons are ranked in the “all-star alumni” category. The fast-growing online payments firm established by the Limerick-born brothers was founded in 2009. The firm offers payment processing services for online and mobile transactions. It supports credit card payments in more than 130 different currencies, bank transfers, Bitcoin and Alipay.
The company, whose backers include Sequoia Capital and PayPal founders Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, is valued at $9 billion (€8.48bn), based on a recent fundraising round last year.
Innovation, social enterprise and arts
McGregor, the reigning UFC lightweight champion and former featherweight champion, is ranked under the entertainment category. Mark Moriarty, owner of the Culinary Counter and San Pellegrino young chef of the year 2015, is included in the arts category.
FoodCloud co-founder Iseult Ward is also on the list. FoodCloud is a not-for-profit social enterprise that helps businesses redistribute surplus food to charities. Ward set up the firm with Aoibheann O'Brien. It has secured numerous investments and in 2015 agreed a deal that ensured Tesco's 146 stores would redistribute the company's surplus food to charities across Ireland.
Other Irish names on the list include Paul Morrissey, vice president of Battery Ventures, a technology-focused investment fund that raised $950 million last February for a new fund.
Niall Mimnagh, chief executive of cleantech firm Mimergy; Sam Blanckensee, development officer with Transgender Equality Network Ireland; and Colin Keogh, a research engineer based at University College Dublin (UCD) who is involved in innovative research in the energy and 3D printing field, are also included in this year's rankings.
