VC Returns Revealed: Fund Performance for Sequoia, IA Ventures, USV & More (2024)

It’s a rare treat to peak behind the curtain and see how venture capital funds are performing for their investors.

Last year, Eric made a public records request to UTIMCO, the Texas public investment fund for the University of Texas and Texas A&M systems. He wrote about those returns here.

Newcomer decided to check back in on how these funds were doing today with a new records request.1 Out of the dozens of VC and PE funds UTIMCO invests in, we are highlighting data from some of UTIMCO’s most well-known firms — Sequoia, Union Square Ventures, IA Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, and GGV Capital.

We also requested data on year-over-year fund performance, from November 2022, November 2021, and November 2020.So this go-around we’re focusing on how estimates for fund performance have changed over time, given Silicon Valley’s extended downturn.

Key Takeaways

  • Union Square Ventures and IA Ventures are among the strongest performing UTIMCO-backed venture capital firms with overall internal rates of return (IRR) of 59.25% and 42.99% respectively.

  • UTIMCO’s estimates for venture capital firms’ IRRs are generally trending downward, though firms like USV and Sequoia have done a better job forecasting to UTIMCO how their IRR is shaping out for a given fund.

  • UTIMCO’s portfolio is being impacted by the U.S. government’s push to have American venture firms break up with their Chinese counterparts. The Texas fund is a major investor in Sequoia and GGV. (Sequoia has spun out its Chinese arm and GGV is in the process of doing so.) All of the UTIMCO-backed GGV funds have a positive IRR, with an average of 17.29%.

This post includes charts chronicling how IRR estimates for Sequoia, Union Square Ventures, Forerunner, GGV, and IA Ventures have fluctuated over time. We also include the raw tables from UTIMCO’s reports so you can see them for yourselves.

Up next for paid subscribers is a chart chronicling how a number of pivotal venture firms are performing so far, sorted by their vintage. This post is likely too long to read in your email so paid subscribers can read the whole post at newcomer.co/p/venture-capital-returns-revealed.

VC Returns Revealed: Fund Performance for Sequoia, IA Ventures, USV & More (2024)

FAQs

What is the performance of the Sequoia Capital fund? ›

Fund Performance

The fund has returned 13.45 percent over the past year, 3.61 percent over the past three years, 7.54 percent over the past five years and 5.74 percent over the past decade.

What is the return of Sequoia Capital? ›

Performance Summary
YEAR TO DATESINCE INCEPTION*
Sequoia Fund10.00%13.32%
Standard & Poor's 50010.56%11.27%

What is a good return for a VC fund? ›

Top VCs are typically looking to return 3-5X+ on their entire fund to their LP investors over ~10 years. For this, they need multiple 'fund mover' outcomes in each fund, since many early-stage investments will eventually fail or return only a small % of the fund.

What is the average ROI for a VC fund? ›

They expect a return of between 25% and 35% per year over the lifetime of the investment. Because these investments represent such a tiny part of the institutional investors' portfolios, venture capitalists have a lot of latitude.

Is the Sequoia Fund a good investment? ›

Overall Rating. Morningstar has awarded this fund 2 stars based on its risk-adjusted performance compared to the 1109 funds within its Morningstar Category.

How good is Sequoia Capital? ›

Sequoia Capital has come out on top of Dealroom's latest global ranking of VC investors, based on the success of the firms they back, as well as how early the firms were to back these fast-growing technology and software businesses with global potential.

Is Sequoia Capital a Chinese company? ›

Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California which specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. As of 2022, the firm had approximately US$85 billion in assets under management.

How prestigious is Sequoia? ›

Sequoia Capital is widely considered to be one of the top venture capital (#vc ) firms in the world. Founded in 1972, the firm has a long history of investing in and helping to grow successful technology companies.

What is the success rate of Sequoia? ›

Sequoia Capital

Over time, they have made around 1,275 investments, 265 of which were successful exits for a ratio of 20.71 percent. As a lead investor, more than 63 percent of the companies that they invested in made it to IPO. Some notable exits include NVIDIA and Instagram.

What is the failure rate of VC investments? ›

It may ebb and flow, but it will always be there as a strong demand. There will always be money to be raised. And yet, despite all that cash flowing into VC-backed companies, twenty-five to thirty percent of them will fail.

What is a good IRR for VC fund? ›

Financial professionals use IRR to set “hurdle rates." A hurdle rate is a minimum IRR value a given investment has to meet for investors to deem it successful. In venture capital, LPs typically expect a fund's net IRR to reach at least 20% by the time a fund has exited all of its investments.

What is a good return for a fund? ›

A good return on investment is generally considered to be around 7% per year, based on the average historic return of the S&P 500 index, adjusted for inflation. The average return of the U.S. stock market is around 10% per year, adjusted for inflation, dating back to the late 1920s.

How do VC investors get paid? ›

Venture capitalists make money from the carried interest of their investments, as well as management fees. Most VC firms collect about 20% of the profits from the private equity fund, while the rest goes to their limited partners. General partners may also collect an additional 2% fee.

Why is venture capital high-risk? ›

Venture capital is a high-risk, high-reward type of investment, and there is no guarantee of success. While VC firms aim to identify the best opportunities and minimize risk, investing in startups and early-stage companies is inherently risky, and there is always the potential for loss of capital.

What is a good size VC fund? ›

The topline: The optimal venture fund size is $200 million to $350 million, according to Santé's new analysis. These funds are able to generate higher returns via typical exits.

What happened to Sequoia Capital? ›

Sequoia to split off China, India/Southeast Asia businesses amid geopolitical tension. U.S. venture capital giant Sequoia plans to split off its Chinese and Indian/Southeast Asian businesses into two independent firms, it said on Tuesday, as it tries to better navigate economic and geopolitical challenges.

What is the average investment in Sequoia? ›

The average investment total is calculated as follows: $2,130,000,000/19 = $112,105,263.16. As of December 2020, Sequoia has a 20.71% success rate based on investment to exit ratio, with 1,275 investments of which 365 were successful exits.

How much did Sequoia make on Apple? ›

In 1977 Sequoia invested $150k in a fruit company a little PC-maker called Apple. The position was closed in 1979, before Apple's IPO, for roughly $6m — a healthy return, but shockingly low relative to what the firm would've made in the coming years.

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