CDP Venture Capital

Emanuele Levi was appointed CEO and General Manager in May 2025 and leads the investment strategy and operations. Prior leadership included Chairman Francesca Bria, who helped shape the firm's innovation-focused identity. The firm operates as a Società di Gestione del Risparmio regulated by Italian authorities, with investment committees governing deployment decisions across its fund-of-funds and direct portfolios.

The firm deploys capital through three structural layers: a fund-of-funds program that anchors emerging Italian VC managers, a direct investment arm targeting pre-seed to Series B companies, and a national network of accelerators and university technology-transfer hubs. This layered approach means CDP Venture Capital functions simultaneously as an LP, a co-investor, and an ecosystem builder — a structure closer to a state development bank than a traditional family office.

It is classified as a sovereign-backed venture platform. Ownership sits with Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Italy's national development bank, which holds 70%, and Invitalia, the state investment agency, at 30%. Unlike sovereign wealth funds that deploy surplus commodity or trade revenues, CDP Venture Capital allocates public capital specifically to domestic innovation, making it closer in function to a national innovation fund like France's Bpifrance.

Active allocations span industrial technology, digital health, artificial intelligence, and energy transition — the latter frequently executed through co-investments with Eni's corporate venture arm, Eni Next. The firm does not publish a formal exclusion list, and its mandate as a national innovation platform suggests broad sector eligibility within venture-grade risk parameters.

Cassa Depositi e Prestiti is the 70% parent, making CDP Venture Capital a subsidiary within a group that also controls CDP Equity, CDP Real Asset, and the Fondazione CDP philanthropic arm. CDP Venture Capital is the innovation-focused vehicle, separate from CDP Equity's private-equity mandate for larger mature companies, though the entities share a common sponsor and may co-appear in multi-stage financing roundtables.

The firm's public mandate concentrates on Italian startups and GPs, consistent with its mission to strengthen domestic innovation capacity. Portfolio companies often pursue European expansion, and the fund-of-funds layer may back managers with pan-European mandates, but the deployment logic starts from an Italy-first lens established by its state sponsors.

Co-investment is a core feature of the direct arm, frequently executed alongside corporate partners like Eni and Google Cloud, as well as institutional VC funds. This structure positions CDP Venture Capital as a convening LP that can bring corporate and institutional co-investors into rounds, reducing the capital-load on independent GPs while aligning corporate strategic interests with financial returns.