6 Acquisition International - Issue 4 2022 Feb22250 The Italian Artificial Intelligence Startup Factory: Creating Startups Through Innovation Established in 2020 ago in Milan, Italy, FoolFarm Spa has been recognised as the Leading Artificial Intelligence Venture Builder and is the leading European venture studio in the AI blockchain and cybersecurity sectors. Furthermore, FoolFarm has been advertised as ‘the start-up factory,’ as it fosters a platform for the birth, growth and development of start-ups, a factory located within one of the oldest Italian industries in the post-industrial environment Milan. or FoolFarm Spa, the company is dedicated to start-ups, firmly believing that this area drives the change from traditional venture capital scenarios to the new disruptive venture, building innovative solutions in the venture capital sector. “Our home is based in the heart of post-industrial Milan, where dreams are planted and become realities: a unique 500+ square meters innovation hub, conceived as a factory, a place to create, build and transform dreams into great realities. All these make us a place to be and work if you want to innovate the world,” boasts Founder and CEO Andrea Cinelli, a serial startupper with a millionaire exit behind it through the sale of its previous Startup, Inventia (inventiaid.com) which it sold in 2020 to the multinational group CRIF. FoolFarm specialises in AI, blockchain and cybersecurity and is renowned for being a strategic, technological and financial platform for venture building. The company aims to create almost 30 new Start-ups in next 5 years from scratch based on a validated industrial process that lasts 36 months and is separated into six phases. For FoolFarm, this is the key to its success. FoolFarm incubates and invests in deep-tech technology companies globally, providing highly regarded operational support to entrepreneurs and corporations. The reason for this is to support its clients in building market-leading companies from scratch. Traditionally, FoolFarm tends to develop start-ups that respond to significant problems with big solutions. Therefore, within the next few months, the company will be launching a new fundraising process to build an entity alongside FoolFarm by moving the Dual Entity model. Infact FoolFarm is building its own investment fund called FoolCapital aimed at raising 25 million euros and which will invest in the Foolfarm deal flow and not only with the ambition of becoming the first investment fund aimed at investing in Startups created within Venture. Builder. Andrea expands on this notion, stating, “This new entity will aim to raise around 25 million over the next few months to F support FoolFarm’s five-year deal-flow by offering investors a new way of investing in new start-ups by diversifying the risk. FoolFarm has a success rate of 75%, therefore an excellent opportunity to invest safely and in start-ups that are ‘hammered’ in our factory for at least 36 months. In this next capital raising path that will start in March 2022, we will have a big four, KPMG, who will be our advisor.” FoolFarm has selected the topical ‘venture building model’ is due to it being the best investment model. Essentially, this model creates more effective and successful start-ups without wasting time and talent while guaranteeing investors a decent investment opportunity. Andrea elaborates on this and explains the importance of this model, stating, “In Europe, over 90% of start-ups die within the first five years of life due to lack of investments, but even more often due to the inadequacy of a team or team the CEO. At Foolfarm, this does not happen. We want to create solid start-ups based on solid intellectual property, and therefore, our motto is ‘One Start-up, One Patent, created with solid and adequate management.” FoolFarm mainly operates within three markets: AI, blockchain, and cybersecurity. These sectors tend to have an explosive annual growth between 40% and 80%. Because of this, within the next five years, FoolFarm aims to build over 40 new start-ups – 40 new projects that are intended to change the market and the lives of individuals. “Here, we change the world and people’s habits by adapting to trends and anticipating them through the serial creation of start-ups. Therefore, it will allow us to become part of the life of people and companies and anticipate the natural cycles of birth, growth and development of products on the market, always remaining on the crest of the wave,” explains Andrea. FoolFarm creates start-ups from scratch and is established as a deep tech venture builder that sets new businesses through its 36-month
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