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The financial literature claims VC financing spurs the growth of new technology-based firms (NTBFs). The aim of the paper is to test whether VC financing has a positive effect on the subsequent growth of sales and employment of portfolio companies, taking into account the actual willingness of the NTBF to receive equity financing. We consider a 10 year long longitudinal dataset composed of 215 Italian NTBFs, including both VC-backed and non VC-backed firms. In order to capture the effects of VC financing on the subsequent growth of firms, we estimate an augmented Gibrat-law type dynamic panel data model. We resort to GMM-system estimation to control for the potentially endogenous nature of VC financing. The results strongly support the view that VC financing spurs firm growth, moreover once controlled for self-selection the effect of VC on firm growth is even larger.