Abstract
More than 40 pan European funs are active in the Italian private equity and venture capital market, playing a fundamental role for the Italian companies. These players have an international perspective and manage a huge amount of resources, that they diversify among several sectors and Countries. Historically, Italy is one of the favorite target and about two billion Euros are invested every year in Italian companies, especially in buy out deals. These investments are usually focused on companies that are bigger than what observed, on average, in the Italian market. While at international level the focus is on sectors such as Information and Communication Technology, in our Country pan European funds prefer the traditional "made in Italy" sectors. Those investments produce, for the target companies, better financial performances, internationalization, improvements of the human resources and increase in the number of employees.