TWO IRISH BROTHERS who became dotcom millionaires in their teems have received $2 million (€1.4 million) in backing from some of Silicon Valley’s most successful investors including the founders of PayPal.

Patrick, 22, and John, 20, Collison have received backing for their latest venture, Stripe, a new payments start-up that focuses on online businesses-to-business payments, reports TechCrunch.

The company is understood to be valued at $20 million (€14.1 million) even before it has launched a product.

It has been invested in by PayPal founders Peter Thiel, who was an early investor in Facebook and is a current board member, and Elon Musk along with some other top Silicon Valley VCs.

The Limerick born brothers became overnight sensations in 2008 when then aged 19 and 17 they sold their first company Auctomatic to Canadian firm Live Current Media for $5 million.

The Irish Times reports that the Collison brothers showed an early apititidue for technology with Patrick a former BT Young Scientist of the Year winner.

Patrick studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology whilst John went to Harvard University in the US.

Both relocated to Palo Alto, a tech company hub in California, to work on the new business, the paper adds.