About This Fund
CDP Venture Capital – Corporate Partners I is an Italian corporate venture capital fund managed by CDP Venture Capital SGR, the venture capital platform of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), Italy's national development finance institution. The fund closed with €300 million under management and became operative in September 2021, making it one of Italy's largest dedicated corporate venture capital vehicles and the first fund of its kind to structure corporate limited partners as active innovation partners rather than passive investors.
Corporate Partners I operates as a multi-sector CVC fund organized across four thematic verticals: EnergyTech (energy transition solutions), IndustryTech (manufacturing, IoT, and robotics), ServiceTech (financial and insurance digitalization), and InfraTech (drones, IoT, artificial intelligence, and innovative materials). The fund invests in post-seed Italian and international startups that have validated their solutions and are ready to scale, deploying tickets of up to €7 million per round through Series B. Corporate LP partners—including Adler, Marcegaglia, and Camozzi—co-invest and provide market access, pilot projects, and commercial routes for portfolio companies, aligning industrial incumbents with deep-tech startups around shared technology agendas.
Corporate Partners I leverages CDP Venture Capital SGR's position as Italy's leading venture capital manager, drawing on the national institution's network, data infrastructure, and mandate to strengthen Italy's innovation ecosystem. The fund is designed to catalyze cross-sector synergies between its corporate LPs and a curated portfolio of scaling startups, creating a flywheel of industrial demand, pilot revenues, and follow-on capital that complements CDP's broader Italian innovation agenda across subsequent fund generations.