THE ONLINE PAYMENTS company founded by two Limerick brothers has received a fresh investment of $70 million (€57 million), valuing the four-year-old start-up at $3.5 billion (€2.8 billion).

The Financial Times reports that Stripe has finished a fundraising round that shows a doubling in the valuation of the company since last January.

Back then, a $80 million (€65 million) injection saw the company valued at $1.75 billion (€1.4 billion).

John and Patrick Collison’s e-payments service Stripe is designed around making online credit card payments easier for developers.

The progress of the San Francisco-based firm has been followed very closely this year with significant announcements involving two of the internet’s biggest companies

• Explainer: How did Stripe become a $1.75 billion company? >

Stripe has been working closely with Twitter as the site officially started testing its long-awaited function for users to buy products directly from their timeline.

Facebook is also going in a similar direction and has been testing its own Stripe-powered ‘Buy’ button.

Read: Stripe goes global by letting users get paid in any currency >

Read: Twitter could soon let you buy goods directly from tweets >