FoolFarm S.p.A. and University of Salento present in Lecce Foolers Village, the first "startup factory" inside universities. A hub of innovation and technology, ready to collect the ideas of young talents from Puglia and turn them into successful new businesses that will operate, in particular, in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, blockchain and cyber-security. A formula that does not yet exist in Italy, and thanks to the collaboration and foresight of FoolFarm and University of Salento, they are the first to bring the U.S. venture building model to our country: going to universities to meet, scout, stimulate and reward talent through development and investment plans.
Two novelties will accompany the inauguration of Foolers Village: the presentation to local and national investors of Snaproof, the first startup born right within the walls of the new Lecce innovation center, and the Apulian leg in Italian universities of the Roadshow of the first investment program of 50.000.00 euros in startups aimed at students and undergraduates who, by next January 15, 2024, will be able to participate in the contest through foolersvillage.com The Foolers Village will facilitate the exchange and enhancement from university scientific knowledge thanks to the entrepreneurial growth path, based on the model of "industrialization" of startups signed by the Italian venture builder FoolFarm. The program will transform an embryonic stage project, idea or thesis into a startup in as little as 6 weeks, thanks to the venture building methodology: Foolers Village will co-found startups and inaugurate its activities with a 50,000.00 euro investment program in technology startups with a focus on artificial intelligence.
After Naples, the Roadshow 2023-2024 reaches Lecce and other Italian university cities. In the presence of Alessandro Delli Noci, Councillor for Innovation of the Region of Puglia; Fabio Pollice, Rector of the University of Salento; Andrea Cinelli, CEO and Founder of FoolFarm S.p.A., will present the Foolers Village in Lecce, whose goal is to help employment and the economy of the area, encouraging the meeting between innovative startups and industrial and financial investors, thanks to synergies with the academic world. Foolers Village is the new "startup factory" of Puglia, a meeting center also for investors who will be able to touch and support the innovative drive of the students of the Salento University Pole and the whole of Puglia. As was the case with Snaproof, the fledgling startup that saw the light of day in Lecce's new Foolers Village, a company that proposes a new standard for simplifying the entire user experience of complex processes with a single gesture. Snaproof enables a wide range of secure services, including transactions, signatures, proxies, payments and user identification, all in a 'snap.
Turning ideas into business is possible as Foolers Village activities combine training, selection of the most innovative projects, hackathons, research activities developed with realities of the production system, events and initiatives aimed at institutional and private investor communities. An economic model that provides incubation services, mentorship, entrepreneurial coaching, prototype development for internal and external startups, as well as open innovation activities in collaboration with companies. Dedicated to students, entrepreneurs, managers, and academics, the Nov. 17 meeting (scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the University of Salento Ecotekne Campus - Aldo Romano Building, Ground Floor, Fermi Room) is an opportunity to discuss the national innovation ecosystem with some of the main players in the field.
"The work and the presence of a Foolers Village in Lecce is a focal element for the development and growth of venture building in Italy," says Andrea Cinelli, CEO and Co-founder of FoolFarm S.p.A. "FoolFarm has launched seven innovative startups and its goal is to go and meet innovation where it is born, garrisoning the territory with facilities and services available in places like Lecce, where innovation is fermenting and there is enormous potential. I would like to thank the institutions, academia and the business world that have welcomed with great interest an initiative that looks to young people and talent to build new successful realities. We will continue to support and sustain them through investments, facilities and expertise thanks to the new Foolers Villages that are springing up all over Italy." "Fostering new entrepreneurship, rewarding talent, helping the local economy to grow and emerge in the Italian innovation landscape," comments Vittorio Boscia, Scientific Director of Contamination Lab, University of Salento.
"We are moving from theoretical entrepreneurial models to the practice of the industrial world very quickly: the University of Salento with its curricula and the valuable activity of the Contamination Lab (C.Lab2.0), the proactive collaboration with FoolFam and the Dhitech technological district, with its international network, proposes the essential ingredients to give substance to the many business and enterprise ideas already present in the departments and among the students. We are determined to grow and harness the potential of the venture building model applied to the fertile ground already found in universities." The Foolers Village in Lecce has been joined by a second Village in Naples to create real "startup factories" within Italian universities, particularly in southern Italy and those outside the usual academic circuits of Milan, Rome and Turin. After Lecce and Naples, FoolFarm plans to open new Villages in Sassari and Bolzano, in a logic of interconnection between universities to transform the ideas of students, researchers and PHDs into innovative businesses, modeled on U.S. best practices.