Stripe

Stripe builds software that lets businesses accept payments online. Brothers Patrick and John Collison, from Ireland, founded it in 2010. The company is registered in the United States, with main offices in South San Francisco and Dublin.

Its first product was a few lines of code a developer could add to a website to take card payments. Stripe has since added Billing for subscriptions, Connect for marketplaces, Radar for fraud checks and Tax for sales tax handling. Stripe Checkout offers a ready-made payment page.

Companies of all sizes use Stripe, including Amazon, Shopify partners and many startups. The company also issues cards and offers business lending through its Capital product. It remains privately held, with shares sold to employees and investors through periodic tender offers. The company publishes Stripe Press books and runs an annual conference called Sessions. It has bought smaller firms in areas such as tax and identity checks. Stripe supports dozens of currencies and many local payment methods around the world.