Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan posted a 6.7% net return and grew net assets to $279.4 billion in its 2025 annual report, released in March 2026. That's the short answer. The longer answer is a fund that missed its own benchmark by 5 full points while its venture bet quietly became one of the best-performing pieces of the entire portfolio.
I read a lot of LP annual reports because they tell you where the smartest, most patient capital in the world is actually rotating — not where it says it's rotating in a press release. OTPP's 2025 report is a useful case study: a marquee Canadian pension fund that undershot its internal benchmark by $12 billion in one year, yet kept expanding its direct venture and growth-equity book at exactly the moment plenty of LPs were pulling back from private markets.
Figures from Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan's 2025 Annual Report (released March 2026), OTPP press releases, and BetaKit reporting on Teachers' Venture Growth.
What Does OTPP's 2025 Annual Report Say About Total Returns?
Ontario Teachers' 2025 annual report shows a one-year net return of 6.7%, down from 9.4% in 2024, and 5.0 percentage points below the fund's own 11.7% internal benchmark for the year — a shortfall the plan calls $12.0 billion in negative value add. Net assets still grew to $279.4 billion from $266.3 billion a year earlier, driven by net income plus continued member and employer contributions, and the ten-year annualized net return holds at 6.8%, with return since inception (1990) at 9.2%.
How Much Did OTPP's Venture Capital Portfolio Return in 2025?
Teachers' Venture Growth, OTPP's in-house late-stage venture and growth-equity arm, returned 30.2% in 2025 against an 18.5% one-year benchmark — nearly 12 points of outperformance in the one asset class most LPs treated as radioactive after the 2022 correction. TVG's fair value grew to $15.3 billion CAD from $10.4 billion in 2024, a 47% jump in asset value, and now makes up 6% of the total fund versus 4% a year prior. That's a bigger, faster allocation shift than almost any other line item in the report.
Why Did OTPP Underperform Its Benchmark in 2025?
OTPP's private equity portfolio returned -5.3% in 2025, one of the weakest asset classes in the report, and it's the single biggest reason the total fund fell 5.0 points short of its 11.7% benchmark — a gap the plan quantifies as $12.0 billion in negative value add for the year. Real estate and parts of the credit book faced similar drag from a slow private-market exit environment, while venture growth and public equities pulled in the opposite direction. It's a reminder that "pension fund return" is really a blend of very different bets moving in opposite directions in the same year.
The private equity shortfall isn't unique to OTPP. Large LPs across Canada and the US have been marking down buyout-fund valuations for three straight years as exit activity — IPOs, sponsor-to-sponsor sales, strategic M&A — stayed well below the pace of 2020-2021. When a fund can't sell a portfolio company at the price it's carried on the books, that unrealized markdown flows straight into the year's reported return, even if the underlying business is performing fine operationally. That dynamic is exactly why OTPP's decision to keep growing TVG rather than pulling back looks like a deliberate bet that direct, later-stage venture positions will re-rate faster than legacy buyout vintages once the exit window reopens.
How Does OTPP's 2025 Performance Compare to CPP Investments?
CPP Investments posted a 9.3% net return for its fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, closing at $714.4 billion in net assets — a materially higher one-year return and more than 2.5x OTPP's asset base. The two funds don't run on the same fiscal calendar (CPP's year ends in March, OTPP's in December) and carry different asset mixes, but the comparison is the standard yardstick Canadian pension watchers use every year.
OTPP vs CPP Investments: 2025 Scoreboard
OTPP 2025 Annual Report; CPP Investments FY2025 results, March 2026.
CPP Investments' fiscal year ends March 31; OTPP's ends December 31, so figures reflect different 12-month windows, not the same calendar period.
Is Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Fully Funded in 2026?
Yes. OTPP reported a preliminary funding surplus of $31.2 billion in its 2025 annual report, marking the 13th straight year the plan has been fully funded — meaning its assets exceed its projected pension obligations to more than 340,000 working and retired Ontario teachers. That surplus is what gives the plan room to keep pushing more capital into venture growth and other illiquid private-market strategies without raising contribution rates on members or the province.
Being fully funded matters for a different reason too: it's what lets a fund like OTPP behave like a genuinely long-duration investor instead of a forced seller. A pension plan running a deficit has to prioritize liquidity and predictable income, which pushes allocation toward bonds and public equities and away from illiquid, multi-year venture positions. A $31.2 billion cushion means OTPP can hold TVG's positions through a down cycle, keep writing growth-stage checks when other LPs are retrenching, and wait for its private-market marks to catch up rather than crystallizing losses on a forced timeline.
What Does OTPP's 2025 Report Show Across Its Full Asset Mix?
| Asset Class | 2025 Return | 2024 Return | % of Total Fund (2025) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venture Growth (TVG) | 30.2% | ~22% | 6% | Beat 18.5% benchmark by ~12 pts |
| Public Equities | ~14% | ~18% | ~19% | Benefited from 2025 equity rally |
| Fixed Income / Bonds | ~5% | ~4% | ~24% | Stable, lower-volatility carry |
| Private Equity | -5.3% | ~2% | ~15% | Weakest asset class in 2025 |
| Real Estate | ~-2% | ~-4% | ~13% | Slow recovery from 2022-2023 markdowns |
| Infrastructure | ~7% | ~8% | ~10% | Steady, inflation-linked returns |
| Total Fund | 6.7% | 9.4% | 100% | 5.0 pts below 11.7% benchmark |
Figures are 2025 results blended from Ontario Teachers' 2025 Annual Report, Benefits Canada, and BetaKit reporting on Teachers' Venture Growth. Some 2024 comparative figures and asset-mix percentages are directional estimates where OTPP does not publish exact prior-year, asset-class-level percentages.
What Is Teachers' Venture Growth and How Big Is It Now?
Teachers' Venture Growth (TVG) is OTPP's dedicated venture and growth-equity investing arm, launched in 2019 to back late-stage technology companies directly rather than routing everything through third-party fund commitments. By the end of 2025, TVG's portfolio had grown to $15.3 billion CAD in fair value — up from $10.4 billion in 2024 — now representing 6% of OTPP's $279.4 billion total fund, up from 4% the year before. For a pension plan managing an obligation measured in decades, doubling a venture allocation's share of the book in two years is a real statement about where the fund sees the best forward returns. We track how this kind of institutional capital moves into venture on the VC Performance Dashboard and the Funds Tracker.
$279.4 billion in assets, a 6.7% return that missed benchmark by 5 points, and a venture book that returned 30.2%.
OTPP's headline number undersells the story — its venture bet is the one line item actually beating its target.
The Bottom Line
OTPP's 2025 annual report is a case study in how a single blended return number can hide two very different stories: a private equity and real estate book still working through a slow multi-year recovery, and a venture growth allocation that just posted its best year yet and is being sized up accordingly. If you're an LP, a fund manager, or a founder trying to read the tea leaves on where large, patient pools of capital are actually rotating, the asset-class breakdown in a report like this tells you more than the headline 6.7% ever will.
Track institutional and VC fund performance benchmarks on the VC Performance Dashboard at Value Add VC. Reach out at t@nyvp.com or @Trace_Cohen.
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