Median performance as a venture capital fund is just not good enough.
There are a plethora of places where capital can be invested. Public equities, bonds, international stock markets, real estate, private equity…the list goes on.
And venture capital, sexy as it may be on the outside, has two main drawbacks as an asset class.
First is risk. 9 out of 10 startups fail and those failures typically result in no returns for the investors who helped them off the ground.
Second is time. Venture investments take a LONG time to mature and are effectively illiquid for the entirety of their lives before public markets (with some exceptions).
So in order to clear both hurdles, VC performance has to be eye-popping. And as the chart above shows, while a top 10% VC fund is doing quite well, it's the top 5% that really starts to pull away.
That 5% chart is for Data Minute subscribers only (we appreciate you), but the report has net IRR, DPI, and many more key metrics from over 2,500 venture funds.
Read the VC Fund Performance, Q3 2025report right now.
May your returns be up and to the right.
Onwards!
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Cheers,
Peter Walker
Carta Insights
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