CDP Equity
CDP Equity is the equity-investment arm of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Italy's state lender, holding minority stakes in large strategic Italian companies. Founded in 2011 as Fondo Strategico Italiano, it reaches water through its stake in infrastructure builder Webuild and, indirectly, the early-stage water-tech backed across the CDP group. As of October 2025, Fabio Barchiesi is CEO.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
CDP Equity is what most countries do not have: a state-owned holding company that buys minority stakes in the firms a government considers strategic. It is the equity arm of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Italy's national promotional institution, and it was born in 2011 as the Fondo Strategico Italiano before taking the CDP name in 2016. As of October 2025 its chief executive is Fabio Barchiesi, who also sits as a deputy general manager of CDP itself.
CDP Equity is not a water fund, and that is the honest place to start. Its book is big Italian industry: it holds roughly 16.4% of Webuild, one of the world's largest builders of dams, desalination plants and water-treatment works, and it co-controls the energy contractor Saipem alongside Eni. Water, for CDP Equity proper, arrives at the scale of national infrastructure rather than the seed cheque.
CDP's young water-tech names belong to a sibling, not to CDP Equity directly. CDP Venture Capital, the group's startup arm that CDP Equity backs as an investor in its funds, is the vehicle behind Italy's early-stage water innovation: TITAN4 and Eoliann reading flood and climate risk from satellites, Finapp measuring soil water with cosmic-ray neutrons, PipeIn sending robots through pipes, VisioNing cleaning wastewater. Across the CDP group that is five water companies over seven deals.
CDP Equity and its venture sibling are tied by a thesis you can read straight off the map: Italy treats water as strategic infrastructure, and the state's money turns up at both ends of it, the century-old dam builder and the two-year-old sensor startup. For a newcomer trying to back Italian water, CDP is less a single cheque-writer than the gravity well most of the country's water capital orbits.
Team · 1 profiled
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
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What is CDP Equity?
- CDP Equity is the equity-investment arm of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Italy's state-owned promotional bank. Created in 2011 as Fondo Strategico Italiano, CDP Equity takes minority stakes in large strategic Italian companies and commits to CDP-group funds spanning private equity, venture capital and infrastructure.
- Is CDP Equity the same as CDP Venture Capital?
- No. CDP Equity holds strategic stakes in large Italian companies, while CDP Venture Capital is the CDP group's separate startup-investing arm. Both sit inside Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, and CDP Equity invests as a backer of CDP Venture Capital's funds, which is where most of the group's early-stage water deals run.
- What does CDP Equity invest in?
- CDP Equity invests in companies Italy considers strategic, holding minority stakes such as about 16.4% of infrastructure builder Webuild and joint control of energy contractor Saipem with Eni. It also commits to CDP-group private equity, venture and infrastructure funds rather than buying startups itself.
- Who runs CDP Equity?
- Fabio Barchiesi has led CDP Equity as chief executive since October 2025, when the CDP board appointed him to succeed Francesco Mele. Barchiesi is also a deputy general manager of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, overseeing investments, technology and transformation across the group.
- What water companies has CDP backed?
- Through CDP Venture Capital, the CDP group has backed early-stage Italian water and climate names including satellite risk-modellers TITAN4 and Eoliann, soil-water sensor maker Finapp, in-pipe inspection startup PipeIn and wastewater-treatment company VisioNing, five water companies across seven deals to date.