PitchBook News - Which funds have performed best?

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The Research Pitch

May 7, 2022

Top three: If you missed them, these were our most popular analyst notes from April...

Sneak peek: Our latest Emerging Tech Research on information security will have a wide release Monday, but weekend readers can get early access here.

Fund performance holds strong, but the meter and rhythm may soon change

In a random office discussion this week, I was jokingly challenged to put into haiku my writeup promoting our new Global Fund Performance Report.

Here's what I came up with:

Performance data
Highly divergent by type
Venture wins the race

As I write this, we are only providing a view on final performance through September 2021 and preliminary performance through year-end, but I think we can expect that the glory days of performance during the pandemic (which seems an odd thing to be saying) may be coming to an end as the calendar advances.

The private markets were largely able to slough off the economic destruction caused by the pandemic because areas like travel, hospitality, and hospital systems are not major components of most portfolios.

Even last year's rise of the Delta and Omicron COVID-19 variants are barely visible in the lagged data, but inflation, rising interest rates, and continued global supply issues will not be so easy to dodge in 2022.

But to bring us back to the halcyon days of Q3 2021, here are some highlights:

PE returns cooled, dropping to 6.8% amid a quickly changing macroeconomic backdrop. That figure represents the strategy's lowest quarterly IRR since Q1 2020.

Real estate hit a 17.2% one-year horizon IRR, its best one-year performance since 2014, with preliminary Q4 IRR suggesting at least one more good result for the asset class.

While still strong on an annual basis, private debt performance waned during Q3 and we expect more deceleration in coming quarters.

Secondaries funds stepped up to a new level of fundraising in 2020 and experienced a substantial uptick in performance during 2021, notching a one-year horizon IRR of 52.5%.

There's much more data and analysis in the free report, which features 46 charts involving horizon IRRs, cash multiples, fund cash flows, and more.

Download our Global Fund Performance Report.

Feel free to reach out with any questions or feedback, or if you would like to share your own haikus.

Best,

Hilary Wiek, CFA, CAIA
Lead Analyst, Fund Strategies & Performance

Emerging Tech Research

Fintech startups worldwide raised $29.3 billion during the first three months of the year, which was down on a quarterly basis but up over Q1 2021.

Median deal sizes and valuations remain massive at all stages, but pockets of earlier opportunities are still developing across the industry:

The rise of crypto and web3 has led to demand for novel corporate finance software.

Carbon offsets traded on blockchains are helping match supply with demand.

"Payfac" enablement is a space to watch as scaled marketplaces and platforms look to bring payments in-house.

We dive deeper into the emerging opportunities and VC data across all of fintech in the full report:

non-clients can access a preview

Market Updates

The equity markets experienced a sharp drop in April, the evidence of which was widespread:

The Nasdaq closed down 13.3% and the S&P 500 was down 8.7%.

Unicorn creation slowed as the sell-off resonated on the private scene.

Over the past year, PitchBook's US VC-backed IPO Index has lost nearly half its value.

Our Global Markets Snapshot breaks down April's key trends in the equity, debt, and commodities markets, tracking returns across a range of indexes and sectors, as well as private markets activity:

download the free report

Webinars & Events

How are deal terms changing in VC?

What's happening with public listings?

Where will all this dry powder go?

We hosted our quarterly Venture Monitor webinar this week to discuss the most pressing trends driving US venture capital: watch the replay

In the News

Our insights and data featured in the press:

Where will venture capitalists look next? Here are three possibilities, based on PitchBook data and conversations with VCs. [Quartz]

As the Fed party ends, PE prepares for the hangover: "Factors including soaring inflation, higher interest rates, slowing quantitative easing, and the prospect of quantitative tightening are swiftly changing the liquidity paradigm." [Institutional Investor]

The mental health app boom is raising alarms, as VCs have invested $5.8 billion in mental health startups since the start of 2021 across 500+ deals. [Axios]

If you're a journalist interested in interviewing our analysts or requesting data, contact our PR team.

ICYMI

Highlights from our other recent research:

Market updates

Emerging Technology Research

Coming next week (subject to change)

US VC Valuations Report
ETR: Information Security
ETR: Mobility Tech
Private Markets Real Estate Fundamentals

Thanks for reading! Feel free to email us any time with feedback, questions, or tips!

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PitchBook News - Which funds have performed best?

Older messages

Fintech's median VC valuations hit new highs

Global fund performance holds strong

Global Markets Snapshot: Volatility takes a toll

A mixed bag for late-stage VC

Playground Global bets on future tech

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