Numerous studies have discussed that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are financilly more constrained than large firms: therefore, venture capitalists (VC) are often the only available source of financing to small and young companies, especially in those cases where intangible assets are at the core of the business. By the analysis of the interaction occurred between a sample of italian SMEs and VC and PE operators (from a dataset of 730 deals resulting during period 1997-2007, a final sample of 160 VC/PE-backed companies was obtained), we research for an empirical evidences on the determinants and effects that VC and PE investments played in Italy for small and medium enterprises. We find that, as in the United States, VCs and PEs more likely finance younger, smaller and thus riskier firms; moreover, coupling these results with sustained investments in intangible assets both ex-ante and ex-post the date of the deal, it supports the thoery which sees VC and PE firms as a solution to problems of asymmetric information.