Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations
Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) is France's 1816-founded public financial institution and a long-term investor based in Paris. CDC backs water companies through its local-government arm, Banque des Territoires, spanning leak detection, pipe-inspection robots and industrial water efficiency. As of 2026 CDC has backed 6 water companies across 7 deals, rated Anchor by (don't) Waste Water.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations was created in 1816 to hold France's most sensitive deposits and rebuild public trust after the Napoleonic wars, and two centuries later it is still the French state's long-term financial arm. CDC does not run a water fund. It is a sprawling public-interest investor whose water bets sit inside a far larger mandate, run mostly through one specialist arm.
Caisse des Dépôts makes almost all of its water moves through Banque des Territoires, the local-government bank it set up in 2018. That arm exists to put patient, long-dated capital into the things French towns and regions depend on, and ageing water networks are exactly that kind of problem: unglamorous, capital-hungry, and too slow-burning for most venture money.
Caisse des Dépôts spreads its water bets across 6 companies and 7 deals, and together they map the plumbing of French water. Leakmited and ACWA Robotics hunt the leaks that lose close to a fifth of France's drinking water in transit; Aquassay and Telaqua squeeze waste out of industrial and farm use; vorteX-io watches rivers and floods from space. The thread is French water infrastructure, from Seed to Series A, where CDC often leads the round.
Caisse des Dépôts' freshest water bet, as of 2026, is vorteX-io, the Toulouse startup whose satellite-linked micro-stations track floods and low water in real time. For a generalist public investor, water keeps surfacing in the same quiet place: the unglamorous networks and sensors that keep the taps running, where public patience outlasts a fund's clock.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 6 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- Does Caisse des Dépôts invest in water?
- Yes. Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations backs water companies through Banque des Territoires, its local-government investment arm, rather than a dedicated water fund. As of 2026 it has backed 6 water companies across 7 deals, spanning leak detection (Leakmited, ACWA Robotics), industrial water efficiency (Aquassay) and flood monitoring (vorteX-io).
- What is Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations?
- Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) is France's public financial institution, founded in 1816 and based in Paris to safeguard protected deposits and invest for the long term. CDC is the French state's institution, separate from the similarly named national deposit funds of Senegal, Tunisia, Cameroon and Gabon.
- Who runs Caisse des Dépôts' water investments?
- Caisse des Dépôts channels its water investments through Banque des Territoires, the arm it created in 2018 to finance local-authority projects. CDC's water deals back French water-tech companies and are typically co-invested with specialist funds such as Daphni, Seventure, Demeter and regional vehicles like Région Sud Investissement.
- What kind of water companies does Caisse des Dépôts back?
- Caisse des Dépôts backs French water-infrastructure technology from Seed to Series A: companies that detect network leaks, inspect ageing pipes, cut industrial and agricultural water waste, and monitor rivers and floods. Across the portfolio CDC often leads the round, investing alongside French climate and water specialists.
- Where is Caisse des Dépôts based?
- Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations is headquartered at 56 rue de Lille in Paris, France, and operates nationwide as a public institution. Its water investments focus on French companies and local-authority water networks, managed through the Banque des Territoires arm of the wider Caisse des Dépôts group.