In safe hands: Meet Luca Collaccianni, Cleafy’s Chief Growth Officer

Two decades in cybersecurity shapes how you see the world. It gives you pattern recognition, a clear-eyed view of risk, and an instinct for where real threats are emerging. It also helps you recognise where noise is simply noise. For Luca Collacciani, Cleafy's Chief Growth Officer (CGO), it has also provided a sense of purpose that runs  through everything he does.

"The mission of Cleafy is quite important," he says. "Protecting people's online lives, their savings, from criminals who are trying to steal money. There is a real challenge here – and Cleafy is already showing that it can help."

Luca's path to Cleafy spans some of the most significant shifts in the technology landscape over the past 20 years. He spent 16 years at Akamai Technologies, progressing through sales, product management, and ultimately leading the cloud computing business unit across EMEA. When he left, he joined SandboxAQ, a Google X spin-off working at the intersection of AI and quantum technology, where he developed a deep understanding of large quantitative models and post-quantum cryptography.

That experience proved formative. With quantum computers threatening to render existing encryption obsolete, Luca saw first-hand why the security industry cannot afford to be reactive. When Cleafy's CEO reached out, the opportunity felt like a natural progression: a European cybersecurity company with strong product-market fit, a clear social mission, and a problem space squarely within his expertise.

As CGO, Luca's immediate focus is sustainable growth, built on solid foundations. Cleafy has expanded from around 20 people to roughly 100, and in 10 years, no customer has left. His role is to build on that record.

"The challenge is how to scale the organisation without breaking what the company has spent 10 years building," he explains. "Some startups reach a certain point and break because they try to move too fast. Finding that balance – growing quickly but carefully – is genuinely difficult."

A core part of the challenge is geographic expansion. Cleafy has established a strong position in Italy and Latin America, but many financial institutions in the US, UK, and broader European markets haven’t yet seen the benefits that Cleafy can bring. For Luca, understanding why those regions have not yet followed the same pattern is part of the solution – whether that’s a question of education and brand awareness or product capability.

Luca’s background in mathematics means he has been following machine learning for far longer than simply the current wave of attention, and he has a clear view on what AI means for fraud.

"AI has democratised bank account fraud," he says. "Building banking malware used to require highly skilled, specialist developers. Generative AI and open-source tooling have removed that barrier entirely. The sophistication of attacks that are now possible is something that simply was not the case a few years ago.

“And if attackers are using AI to build and deploy malware faster than ever before, defenders have no choice but to respond in kind. The only defence against AI is AI," he says. "That is what we are building here."

 Luca also believes that AI is key to bridging the separation between fraud and security teams within banks. Historically, the two functions have operated with different objectives and different KPIs, creating a blind spot that attackers have learned to exploit. Modern banking malware crosses both disciplines simultaneously, yet the organisational structures meant to stop it rarely do.

"The blind spot between the security operations centre (SOC) and the fraud desk is just a door of entry for attackers," Luca says. Using AI to close that gap – what Cleafy calls cyber fusion – is central to how he believes the industry needs to evolve.

Outside work, Luca has the same breadth of curiosity as he has at the office. He enjoys reading science fiction, recommending Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, (“it’s better than the film!”) and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. He also enjoys non-fiction examining the impact of technology on society, such as Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a critical account of life inside Facebook's policy team.

Luca is also a keen tennis player, follows developments in AI closely, and advises several early-stage startups alongside his role at Cleafy.