What Waterstream does

Waterstream (legal entity: Waterstream Srl, VAT IT12475310962) is an Italian software company headquartered in Rho, near Milan, and operating as part of Fortitude Group (fortitudegroup.it). Founded in 2022 with 1-10 employees, Waterstream builds a single core product: a full-featured MQTT broker that uses Apache Kafka as its sole persistence layer. The product is a Confluent-verified native MQTT integration that runs as a stateless, multi-cloud compatible Docker application; it connects MQTT clients directly to Kafka producers and consumers, persisting messages, sessions, and subscriptions as Kafka events and eliminating the need for separate MQTT brokers, Kafka Connect infrastructure, or additional storage. It supports MQTT v3.1 and v5 (including shared subscriptions, topic aliases, session and message expiry, flow control, and Enhanced Authentication), WebSocket transport, bridge mode for distributed broker topologies, Azure Event Hubs and RedPanda compatibility, multiple authentication methods (JWT/JWKS, SSL client certificates, Azure Entra ID), Confluent Schema Registry-based JSON validation, and Prometheus monitoring. Distribution is via Docker Hub, AWS Marketplace, and direct enterprise sales.

Waterstream makes money through commercial license sales under a quote-based, multi-year contract model. A free development license is offered for evaluation, limited to 1 node and 20 concurrent clients, with a license file required to run in production. The go-to-market combines product-led growth (self-service free tier, documentation-first onboarding at docs.waterstream.io) with a sales-led enterprise motion (demo requests, technical sales team engagement). The company targets seven use-case verticals — Industrial Manufacturing (primary), Smart Cities, Digital Health, Energy & Utilities, Supply Chain & Logistics, Agriculture, and Retail — addressing pain points around massive IoT data volumes, real-time decision-making, bandwidth optimization, data integrity, and scalability. Distribution partners include Confluent (core), Hivecell (edge computing), and RedPanda (Kafka-compatible alternative). Waterstream holds ISO 9001:2015 certification; no external funding rounds, investor names, or revenue figures are disclosed.

Name

Waterstream

Legal name

Waterstream Srl

Website

https://waterstream.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Waterstream is an Italian software company (Waterstream Srl, part of Fortitude Group) that sells a stateless MQTT broker built natively on Apache Kafka as its sole persistence layer, targeting IoT-heavy enterprises in industrial manufacturing, smart cities, energy, logistics, and other verticals under a commercial license model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

IoT Messaging Infrastructure

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Event Streaming & Pub/Sub Platforms (HDAEAIAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Container Platforms & Orchestration (Kubernetes) (HDABADAF), Data Lake Platforms (HDAEABAC)

Keywords

• MQTT broker software
• IoT data streaming
• Kafka integration platform
• IoT connectivity infrastructure
• Real-time data pipeline

Headquarters

HQ city

Rho

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Commercial License: Waterstream is released under commercial license. Commercial licensing required for production use. Free development license available for evaluation with limitations (1 node, 20 concurrent clients).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Waterstream is a full-featured MQTT broker that uses Apache Kafka (or any Kafka-compatible platform such as Confluent Platform, Azure Event Hubs, or Redpanda) as its sole persistence layer. It operates as a stateless, native Kafka application that connects MQTT clients directly to Kafka producers and consumers, eliminating the need for separate MQTT brokers, Kafka Connect infrastructure, or additional storage layers. The product is distributed as a Docker container image, configured via environment variables, and licensed commercially for production use with a free development license available for evaluation.

Product overview

Waterstream is a single unified product offering: a full-featured MQTT broker built on Apache Kafka as its sole persistence layer. As a Confluent-verified integration, Waterstream replaces the need for separate MQTT brokers and Kafka connectors by operating as a native Kafka application that speaks the MQTT protocol. The product enables millions of MQTT clients to connect to a Kafka platform without code, integration pipelines, or additional storage. Key capabilities include bidirectional MQTT-Kafka bridging, MQTT v5 support, WebSocket support, session persistence, message retention, bridge mode for distributed broker topology, and message validation via Confluent Schema Registry. Waterstream is deployed via Docker container and configured entirely through environment variables.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Waterstream MQTT Broker

Quantifiable outcome

• Connect millions of MQTT clients to data streaming platform without additional storage requirements
• +1 more outcomes

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability1 record

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• ConfluentcoreTechnology or IntegrationWaterstream is a Confluent-verified native MQTT integration. Confluent engineers have validated that Waterstream can operate with the Confluent Platform and meets standard quality and functionality requirements. Waterstream supports Confluent Schema Registry for message validation.
• Fortitude GroupcoreOthersWaterstream Srl is part of Fortitude Group (fortitudegroup.it). Fortitude Group is the parent company of Waterstream.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• HiveMQ: HiveMQ is the leading enterprise MQTT broker, offering a scalable MQTT platform with extensions and HiveMQ Cloud. It competes with Waterstream for enterprise IoT messaging workloads, though HiveMQ's traditional architecture uses its own persistence rather than Kafka as the sole store.
• EMQX: EMQX is a widely deployed open-source and enterprise MQTT broker serving millions of IoT connections globally. Like Waterstream, EMQX is targeting scalable MQTT infrastructure, though Waterstream differentiates via native Kafka-as-persistence while EMQX uses its own distributed database.
• Eclipse Mosquitto: Mosquitto is the canonical open-source lightweight MQTT broker maintained under the Eclipse Foundation. Waterstream competes for the same IoT use cases that Mosquitto historically served, but addresses scale and Kafka integration limitations that constrain Mosquitto in production.

Broad incumbents

• Confluent: Confluent operates the Confluent Platform and Cloud, the commercial Kafka distribution for which Waterstream is a verified integration. Confluent also offers its own MQTT-related connectors (kafka-connect-mqtt) and a broad streaming portfolio, making it both a partner and a potential competitor at the platform layer.
• Solace PubSub+: Solace provides enterprise messaging middleware including MQTT support alongside AMQP, REST and other protocols. It competes in the same enterprise IoT/streaming messaging category where Waterstream plays, though Solace addresses a broader set of protocols and enterprise integration patterns.

Others

• Azure Event Hubs (Microsoft): Azure Event Hubs is a Kafka-compatible managed streaming service that Waterstream natively supports as a persistence alternative. It is a foundational infrastructure layer in Microsoft's IoT/streaming stack and thus an adjacent enabling service for Waterstream deployments.
• Hivecell: Hivecell is an edge-computing hardware partner that runs Waterstream at the edge for IoT deployments. While not a direct competitor, Hivecell is a complementary infrastructure vendor in Waterstream's go-to-market ecosystem.
• Redpanda: Redpanda is a Kafka-API-compatible streaming platform positioned as a high-performance alternative to Apache Kafka. Waterstream explicitly supports Redpanda as a persistence layer, making it both an infrastructure partner and a competitor for the data streaming platform account.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/waterstream_io
• GitHubgithub.com/waterstreamio
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@waterstreamio?si=bW4Q-T9J7YSq5h_d
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/waterstreamio

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Waterstream