Venture Capital Fund Performance

Abstract

In this article, the authors analyze the investment performance of a large database of venture funds sourced from two limited partners. The results suggest that a portfolio of venture capital partnerships can provide an average return that is superior to the public equity market, although the individual fund returns are highly positively skewed. Absent these outliers, the level of fund performance is more in line with public equity market returns. This article also provides some preliminary evidence of venture capital fund performance during and immediately following the dot-com bubble.