When Silicon Valley meets the Global South: Paolo Privitera joins SMILY Academy to build the next generation of regenerative leaders

When Silicon Valley meets the Global South: Paolo Privitera joins SMILY Academy to build the next generation of regenerative leaders

Prof. Claudia Laricchia

Milan / San Francisco, October 26, 2025: The bridge between Silicon Valley and the world of international cooperation is not just a metaphor anymore: it’s a strategic necessity.

As the planet faces converging crises of climate, inequality, and meaning, a new wave of innovators is blending high-tech agility with grassroots wisdom. And now, that bridge has a name: Paolo Privitera, newly appointed Chairman of the Council of Sages at SMILY Academy.

A digital visionary with a purpose

Called by the Italian press “the Pope”, the bridgers builder for his rare ability to connect distant worlds, Privitera embodies the Silicon Valley ethos of speed, scalability, and experimentation, yet he’s now turning his gaze toward purpose.

He launched his first Internet company at just 16, in his native Venice. Since then, he has founded six companies, invested in over 200 startups, joined more than 20 funds as a Limited Partner, and raised upwards of 300 million USD between startups and venture funds. His latest venture, Evensi, became the world’s largest events platform – 200 million events, 60 million users – before being acquired by Events.com, now heading toward a Nasdaq listing after raising another 200 million USD.

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As mentor for programs such as 500 Startups, Google Launchpad, and Alchemist, and founder of the venture fund 1521 Ventures, Privitera has become known for what he calls his five guiding principles: kindness, integrity, networking, speed, and resilience.

“SMILY Academy,” Privitera says, “is a brilliant reality that, in just one year, has launched 7 Chapters in 7 countries – from the U.S. to Brazil, Italy, India, Benin, Cameroon, and Ghana – and already built the first experiential education prototype turning training into direct-action eco-entrepreneurial projects with real environmental and social impact. If it were a digital startup, we’d call it highly scalable. Yet it’s a non-profit, with verified assets exceeding 100,000 euros and an agile, international, intergenerational model.

I’m honoured to serve as Chairman of the Council of Sages, offering my experience and network to support its 50+ partners – including the Indigenous Peoples’ Climate Justice Forum, whose alliance represents the core of the Academy and that represents 400 million people worldwide. This is also a statement of values: beyond profit, I’ve always sought purpose. Today I choose to pursue it explicitly, inside a clean, healthy, fast-growing organisation.”

Led by Claudia Laricchia, Matteo Salerno, inspired by the legendary Indian environmentalist Jadav Molai Payeng, the “Forest Man of India” alongside his daughter Munmuni Payeng and co-founded by the global known climate leader and author Rituraj Phukan, the Academy has become a platform where consciousness meets ecopreneurship and international cooperation. Among the partners, GammaDonna Italy’s leading association for innovative female entrepreneurship; B Women Italy and Women 7, the official engagement group of the G7, to underline once more the inclusive approach of the platform.

Indeed, among the outcomes of the educational experiences of the Academy there are pure impactful global cooperation projects like the bio-engineered ponds powered by solar panels in Benin, providing clean water to over 20,000 people, led by the Indian Aadifè in cooperation with the local Circle of Grand Pioneers; to the first hydroponic forest in Assam (India) that doubles as a green skills school for vulnerable communities, in cooperation with the leader Got Produce and the documentary in Brazil on the occasion of the COP30 led by Change for Planet and the two fellows Roberta Bonacossa and Nadia Paleari: SMILY’s projects are proving that cooperation can be a business model, if rooted in empathy and measurable impact. Specifically the demo day of the hydroponic forest will be held on the occasion of the Earth Mother Experience, to be held in Assam (India) from March 20 to 26 2026: https://share.google/9c6YAKyn55SNF0OW9.

“Paolo was the first mentor of SMILY Academy,” recalls President Prof. Claudia Laricchia.
 “His surgical view of business models met my vision of eco-business based on knowledge exchange between indigenous peoples and Western organisations. From conversations separated by oceans and worldviews, a shared purpose emerged — an Academy where we cultivate consciousness, knowledge, and impact. Today we see the results: new projects in India, including the Earth Mother Experience for women entrepreneurs next March, and the green professions school with Got Produce. And this is just the beginning — especially with a mind like Paolo’s.”

Silicon Valley meets India and the world

Why does this connection between Silicon Valley and India matter now? Because the two ecosystems are shaping the global future of innovation and cooperation.

India is currently the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world, hosting more than 5,000 startups in Bengaluru alone, and attracting US $2.5 billion in funding in just the first half of 2025. It ranks fourth globally in startups that have raised over US$ 50 million, with 429 scale-ups and US$ 127 billion in VC investment.

Meanwhile, one in four Silicon Valley startups is founded or managed by an Indian-origin entrepreneur, forming one of the world’s most powerful diasporic innovation networks.

At the same time, India’s Global Capability Centres (GCCs) — from Google to Cisco — have doubled in a decade, now numbering over 1,600 and projected to contribute 3.5% of India’s GDP by 2030, generating US $121 billion in annual revenue.

In parallel, a new US-India Deep Tech Alliance has committed US $1 billion over the next decade to strengthen joint R&D and venture activity. These cross-border flows of capital, talent, and innovation are redrawing the map of international cooperation — not as aid, but as shared entrepreneurship for planetary challenges.

From purpose driven technology to humanity

This is precisely where SMILY Academy positions itself: as a living bridge between innovation and regeneration, between the speed of the digital economy and the slowness of ecological repair.

In Privitera’s words, it’s about “bringing Silicon Valley’s scalability mindset into harmony with human and planetary needs.”
 In Laricchia’s, it’s about “transforming cooperation into co-creation.”

Together, their alliance signals a new era: one where the future of leadership is not only about building unicorns, but about nurturing forest-minded founders — capable of blending profit with purpose, and technology with wisdom.

Because the next Silicon Valley may not be a place at all, but a state of consciousness.

Claudia Laricchia, Women Economic Forum Italy – Public Affairs Director; SMILY Academy, President; Global Forum of Indigenous Peoples’ Climate Justice Forum, Head of Strategic International Cooperation; European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability and Rome Business School, Professor.  

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