Q1 performance data shows maturing fund vintages aren’t doomed

It can be hard to tell how venture capital firms are doing. Sometimes it’s easier after a big exit, like Figma’s last week, which gave us a window into the sizable returns some of its early backers, including Index Ventures and Greylock, could capitalize on. But VC firms are usually an opaque bunch when it comes to performance.

So when the market started to sour in Q1, it was obvious we wouldn’t know how things were actually faring until the data started trickling in from their limited partners, or LPs, who, if public, generally have to make much of that information public as well. Meeting documents from pension funds are starting to give us a first look at recent venture capital outcomes.

The folks over at Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System (SCERS) released their Q1 performance data this week. We decided to unpack the numbers and use their stakes as a potential sign of how other funds from the same vintage — referring to the year they started deploying capital — might be faring.

The main thing to highlight, if your firm’s fund is reaching maturity, is that the inflated valuations and exit prices of last year don’t seem to have materialized into the kiss of death that many were expecting when sinking tech stocks started to impact venture in the first quarter. Not yet, at least.