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Compare your fund's performance against Carta, PitchBook, and Cambridge Associates benchmarks. Filter by vintage year, fund size, and strategy. Data sourced from 1,000+ VC funds.
| Vintage | TQ TVPI | Median TVPI | TQ Net IRR | Median Net IRR | TQ DPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 3.5x | 2.0x | 28% | 14% | 2.2x |
| 2017 | 3.2x | 1.9x | 26% | 13% | 1.9x |
| 2018 | 3.0x | 1.8x | 24% | 12% | 1.6x |
| 2019 | 2.8x | 1.6x | 22% | 10% | 1.2x |
| 2020 | 2.5x | 1.5x | 20% | 9% | 0.9x |
| 2021 | 1.8x | 1.1x | 14% | 4% | 0.4x |
| 2022 | 1.4x | 0.9x | 10% | — | 0.2x |
Always compare against funds of the same vintage year — market conditions at deployment time drive returns more than manager skill in many cases. A 2019 fund benchmarks against 2019 peers, not 2021.
TVPI is most relevant in early years (years 1–5). DPI becomes the dominant metric in later years (6+) once exits have occurred. A high-TVPI, low-DPI fund at year 8+ is a red flag — ask why capital hasn't been returned.
Seed funds benchmark against seed funds. Growth equity funds benchmark against growth equity. Comparing a seed fund's net IRR to a growth fund's DPI is meaningless — strategy determines the appropriate comparison set.
Smaller funds (< $100M) typically show higher IRRs due to the power law math of smaller checks. Compare your fund's size tier: micro (< $50M), emerging ($50–150M), mid ($150–500M), or large ($500M+). Top-quartile thresholds differ materially across size buckets.
PME compares VC returns to what the same cash flows would have earned in public markets (S&P 500 or Russell 2000). LPs increasingly require PME > 1.2x to justify the illiquidity premium of VC. Cambridge Associates reports the median VC fund PME at ~1.1x — barely above public markets.
The 2/20 standard (2% management fee, 20% carry) is giving way to more LP-favorable terms for newer or first-time managers: 2/20 with a 6–8% hurdle and European-style waterfall. GPs with strong performance records command 2.5/25 or better.
For mature vintages (2015–2019), top-quartile TVPI starts at approximately 2.8–3.5x depending on the vintage year. The 2019 vintage top quartile benchmark is ~2.8x TVPI; the 2016 vintage top quartile is ~3.5x TVPI, per Carta and Cambridge Associates data. Top decile funds in strong vintages often exceed 5–8x TVPI.
Top-quartile net IRR is approximately 22–30% for mature vintages (2015–2019). For the 2019 vintage, top-quartile net IRR is around 22%; for the 2016 vintage, it is around 28%. These figures are net of management fees and carry. Micro funds (< $50M) often show higher IRRs due to the power of small check sizes in early-stage deals.
The primary sources for VC fund benchmark data are Carta (large sample of emerging managers), Cambridge Associates (institutional LP perspective, global coverage), PitchBook (broad coverage, some survivorship bias), Burgiss (institutional-quality, widely used by endowments), and Aduro Advisors (emerging managers specialist). Most require subscriptions; Cambridge Associates and PitchBook publish summarized benchmarks publicly.
To compare your fund to VC benchmarks: (1) identify your vintage year, fund size tier, and strategy (seed/early/growth/sector-specific); (2) pull top-quartile, median, and bottom-quartile TVPI, DPI, and net IRR for your vintage from Carta or Cambridge Associates; (3) calculate where your fund falls across each metric; (4) weight DPI more heavily if your fund is past year 6; (5) calculate your PME vs. a public market index for the same cash flow schedule.