IVP, the growth-stage venture firm known for backing companies ahead of major IPOs, is quietly raising a new $1.8 billion fund and pitching limited partners on a 31.1% net internal rate of return since the firm's inception, according to fundraising documents reviewed by Newcomer. The target would bring IVP's fund size back to its 2021 level, reversing a step down to $1.6 billion in its most recent 2024 vintage -- a notable move in an LP environment where most firms have been shrinking fund sizes, not scaling them back up.
The terms IVP is asking for are aggressive by current market standards: 2% management fees in the fund's first year, stepping up to 2.25% for a number of subsequent years, plus 25% carried interest that steps up to 30% once the fund clears a 2.5x return hurdle. IVP is also committing 3% of the fund's total commitments from its own general partners -- a meaningful alignment signal, though one that premium-brand firms have increasingly used to justify above-market fee structures to LPs who might otherwise balk.
The headline number driving the pitch is the 31.1% net IRR since IVP's inception -- a figure that, if it holds up under LP diligence, represents genuinely elite long-run performance in an asset class where median net IRRs across growth-stage vintages have compressed substantially over the past several years as the exit environment has slowed and multiples have reset lower across the board. IVP's history includes early positions in companies that later achieved major IPOs, and the firm has built its brand specifically around late-stage, pre-IPO growth investing.
“The raise lands at a genuinely interesting moment for the venture fundraising market.”
The raise lands at a genuinely interesting moment for the venture fundraising market. LPs broadly remain capital-constrained and distribution-starved after several years of a slow exit environment, and most firms across the market have been raising smaller funds or extending fundraising timelines well beyond historical norms. IVP scaling back up to $1.8 billion -- while asking for premium, not discounted, economics -- is a bet that its track record is strong enough to command LP capital even in a tight allocation environment where many peer firms are struggling to hit target.
For emerging and mid-market fund managers, IVP's ability to raise on premium terms in this environment is a useful data point about where LP capital concentration is actually heading: toward fewer, larger, brand-name growth vehicles with demonstrated track records, rather than a broad allocation across the growth-stage manager universe. That dynamic makes fundraising materially harder for newer growth-stage entrants trying to compete for the same LP dollars without a decade-plus performance history to point to.
The bear case: a self-reported net IRR since inception is one number among many an LP would examine, and inception-to-date figures can be flattered by early, now-fully-realized vintages that don't reflect current market conditions or the fund IVP is actually raising capital for today. Premium fee and carry terms also only get accepted if enough LPs believe the track record repeats going forward, not just historically.
Watch whether IVP actually closes at or near its $1.8 billion target given the broader fundraising drought, whether other brand-name growth firms follow with similarly aggressive fee structures in their next vintages, and whether IVP's next reported portfolio marks validate the 31.1% net IRR pitch once this fund starts deploying into 2026's growth-stage environment.
