Two young emigrants who left Ireland to set up a business in San Francisco have won the 2015 EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Brothers John Collison (pictured) and Patrick Collison launched online payments platform Stripe five years ago. Stripe has rapidly gained global traction, though its financial performance is not known.

The Collisons, who hail from Limerick, don’t have a business operation in Ireland. They live in San Francisco where Stripe employs around 300 people.

“Stripe has disrupted the world of online payments, growing at an unprecedented pace for an Irish company in an industry that had previously been dominated by major players in the market,” said Anne Heraty, chair of the judging panel.

Jack Dobson of Dunbia, a Northern Ireland meat processor, was selected as Industry Entrepreneur of the Year.

In Association with

Brandtone founders Pádraig McBride and Donald Fitzmaurice won the award in the Best Emerging Entrepreneur category.

Brandtone is a marketing company that uses mobile phones to engage with consumers on behalf of big brands. The company is mainly active in emerging markets such as South Africa. As of September 2014, Brandtone had raised €32m in equity investment. Accumulated losses in December 2013 stood at €14.3m.