Andrea Cinelli is one of the emerging leaders in the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) market.

He is a sought-after pioneer of change with a unique entrepreneurial vision and track record, visionary acumen, and social commitment needed to thrive in today’s marketplace. He is a trusted guide and bold catalyst since the mid-90s and one of the European pioneers in the last 30 years of Italian and European internet and digital history with more than 4 years of experience in the US working in companies like Apple Computers and Trend Micro.

He has successfully led large organizations through their digital transformations by driving innovation, identifying top talents, bringing them together and fostering conditions or success to accelerate momentum in the delivery of a united vision. He has been a successful digital entrepreneur, an executive manager @ top 500 companies, a venture investor, and a recognized global expert in Artificial Intelligence, Biometrics, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity Markets with +7 patents. He is a celebrated keynote futurist and visionary speaker and book author. Andrea vows to change lives and make the internet a safer place by pulverizing data through blockchain.

Currently, he is the CEO and Founder of Foolfarm, a Deep-Tech Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain & Cybersecurity Venture Builder. In an interview, he speaks on an array of topics. Andrea has received many awards in his career and was recently named Top 50 CEOs in Artificial Intelligence and Top 25 CEOs in Blockchain by the US magazine Technology Innovators. Now he is the Ceo and Founder of the largest European Venture Builder, Foolfarm Spa driving again a disruption in the European venture capital ecosystem.

Andrea is a key-note speaker and participates in events around the world He has published several books including the latest book "I speak therefore I am" which presents the role of voice as the next human-machine interface in the next 30 years. Andrea has invested in over 35 Startups, founded an investment fund called FoolCapital which is investing + 30m in Startup Deeptech around the world and is a consultant and advisor to financial institutions and investment funds.

More about Andrea’s recent venture, FoolFarm Deep-Tech Venture Builder

Andrea founded FoolFarm in 2020 in Milan, Italy. It is one of the leading European Deep-Tech Venture studios in the AI, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity sectors. The start-up drives the change from traditional venture capital scenarios to the new disruptive venture building innovative scenario in the Venture Capital field. Foolfarm has been touted as the ‘Startup factory’, fostering a platform for the birth, growth, and development of startups, a factory located inside one of the oldest Italian industries of the post-industrial Milan environment. “We are a strategic, technological, and financial platform of Venture Building designed to create multiple startups from scratch in parallel and based on a validated industrial process lasting 36 months and divided into 6 phases, specialized in AI, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity.” Adds Andrea that the company incubates and invests in deep-tech technology companies globally providing deep operational support to entrepreneurs and corporates to help them build market-leading companies leveraging a 36mo venture builder proprietary process named BeFOOL to build market-leading companies from scratch.FoolFarm is today one of the largest capitalization venture builders in Europe and aims to go public on a European market by 2027 to allow it to expand globally.

The Venture Building Model

“We have chosen the Venture Building model and Deep-tech because we believe they are actually the best investment model to create more solid and successful startups without wasting talent and at the same time to guarantee investors by offering solid selected investment opportunities only than traditional startup’s incubation and acceleration models, as confirmed by recent reports.” Elaborates Andrea that over 90% of startups die, at least in Europe, in the first 5 years of life, due to lack of investments, but even more often due to a lack of, due to the inadequacy of the team or the CEO. “In a venture Builder like Foolfarm this does not happen, and we want to create solid startups, based on solid intellectual property (our motto is One Startup, One Patent), created with the method and think well from the first moment with solid and adequate management: or we close first. We aim for a success rate of> 70% in our practice. *Therefore, FoolFarm exists: to create solid startups all based around extraordinary patents as well solid investments for investors without wasting talent.”

FoolFarm – A Deep-Tech "Startup Factory" in the Ai, Blockchain & Cybersecurity

As a cross between an incubator, venture capital and a software house, FoolFarm acts as an incubator where startups undergo incubation right from the very beginning from the birth of the concept. ‘Startup factory’, as Foolfarm is rightly called works on the lines of an industrial process, building several startups in parallel. “As a venture capital, we enhance our investments through the exits from our creatures that we aim to achieve in a maximum of 36 months; as a software-house, we create the product from scratch in our R&D department, from the prototype to the complete product which we then spin off creating a new Startup around us.” “We are a Deep Tech Venture Builder, a company that creates more new startups in parallel from scratch (this year we aim to create 6 new realities) through an industry 36 months validated method. Our strategy always focuses on patenting any idea on which the new startup is based, right from the start. For example, last year we patented 4 new patents including the famous data pulverization patent based on the use of homomorphic cryptography, one of the latest trends in the blockchain sector.”

The Ai and Blockchain Revolution

AI and Blockchain technologies has made significant strides in its development and widespread adoption in recent years, and there’s no sign of it slowing down, observes Andrea. “In fact, according to Deloitte’s 2021 Global Blockchain development Survey, almost 76% of executives surveyed said they expect digital assets to be a solid alternative to fiat currencies for global finance in the next 5–10 years.” Says this technology enthusiast that it’s time to prepare for a financial and social revolution that will change how we process transactions, manage data and deliver services. “NFTs are a revolutionary new way of buying and selling digital assets that represent real-world items. All NFTs are unique and can’t be replaced or swapped – they can only be purchased, sold, traded, or given away by the original owner/creator of that asset. NFTs could power a whole new wave of digital collectibles, from rare artwork to one-of-a-kind sneakers and accessories.”

The Future roadmap

“We operate by technological waves trying to anticipate the trends that will be dominant by 3/5 years. Last year we focused our attention on voice-based technologies and data security using blockchain technologies as a system to enable decentralized trust ability models.” Says Andrea that this year the company will address the issue of NFTs and their non-standard applications to bring this revolutionary technology beyond its current borders. “We operate by technological waves trying to anticipate the trends that will be dominant by 3/5 years. Last year we focused our attention on voice-based technologies and data security using blockchain technologies as a system to enable decentralized trustability models. This year we are instead addressing the issue of NFTs and their non-standard applications to bring this revolutionary technology beyond its current borders.” Come May 2022, the company is planning to launch a new startup named Fragmentalis, a revolutionary startup that will be based on data pulverization technologies to create a new IT security and data protection model, more respectful of the customer and his ownership.

Case studies

Voiceme, touted as one of the first start-ups initiated by FoolFarm, used the first solution that allows clients to authenticate, pay and sign through the Voice, a patented solution that was recently declared among the coolest startups in Europe. It is based on an intertwining of AI and blockchain technologies. This Startup (which after only 1 year is already worth +10 million) is now used to allow access to millions of customers in one of the most important hotel chains in the world, allowing access to booths with voice and to be able to access all hotel services through authentication and voice payments. “Another fantastic example of this technology is a European government institution that is using it to authenticate young people aged 12 to 18 through their voices. Finally, with this solution, we aim to soon enable the possibility of legally signing it by voice, and we are already talking about it with various players in the world of electronic signature and IT security.”Among the most famous patents made by Foolfarm there is the famous patent of the Data Pulverization, the safest solution in the world for data protection and storage capable of reducing by 99% data theft, hackers and ramsomware attacks and around to which the startup "Fragmentalis" was launched in June 2022. Another famous startup created in the Foolfarm laboratories is IIO, a sort of open source Alexa technology with the recognition of human emotions.

Andrea’s success advices

“Curiosity, commitment, vision, and method but above all, knowing how to dare by experimenting where it is often unknown without being afraid of making mistakes. My destiny has always been to invent new things: new products, new ideas, new business models, which have often become products or solutions used by millions of consumers, both in the companies where I have worked and in my startups.”

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