Patrick Collison

Patrick Collison is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stripe, a technology company that builds programmable financial infrastructure for online commerce. He also co-founded the Arc Institute, a biomedical research organisation pioneering a new model for basic research. He frequently writes and speaks about science, innovation, and economic growth, with a particular interest in Europe's competitiveness.

He founded Stripe in 2010 with his brother John Collison to make it easier for businesses to accept payments and operate online. Today millions of businesses — from fast-growing startups to global enterprises like Ford and Amazon — use Stripe to accept payments, send payouts, and manage complex operations online.

Alongside his work at Stripe, Collison writes and speaks about innovation, science, and economic growth. He often engages with scientists, economists, and entrepreneurs to discuss how research, technology, and new ideas shape long-term prosperity. He argues that scientific research, entrepreneurship, and effective institutions are key to economic growth, and that Europe, in particular, has untapped potential if it gets these right.

Collison also co-founded the Arc Institute, which gives scientists long-term, unrestricted funding and the freedom to pursue ambitious biomedical research — free from the constraints of the traditional grant cycle. He studied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before leaving university to build Stripe.