What is the return rate for venture capital?
As discussed in the question above, the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), also known as the Annual Rate of Return, for a venture fund should be in the 15% to 27% range.
The average VC fund generates a 19% internal rate of return (IRR), according to Cambridge Associates. That's compared to an 11% IRR for the S&P 500 and a 5% IRR for 10-year Treasury bonds. And while VC funds can be more volatile than stocks and bonds, they also tend to outperform in both good and bad years.
The expected ROI for Series A investments can vary widely, but generally, investors aim for a return ranging from 3x to 10x their initial investment. However, it's important to note that the actual ROI can be influenced by factors such as market conditions, industry dynamics, and the startup's growth trajectory.
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.
The agreement is typically structured so that once the fund's investments start getting distributed back to the fund investors, the VC firm gets a percentage of any profits. Most carries are 20%, but a very successful firm with a strong track record might negotiate for a higher carry.
In investing, the 80-20 rule generally holds that 20% of the holdings in a portfolio are responsible for 80% of the portfolio's growth. On the flip side, 20% of a portfolio's holdings could be responsible for 80% of its losses.
VCs often use the shorthand phrase “two and twenty” to refer to the 2% of annual management fees a venture fund might take and the 20% carried interest (or “performance fee”) it would charge.
100/10/1 Rule - Investor screens 100 projects, finance 10 of them, and be lucky & able to enough to find the 1 successful one. Sudden Death Risk - Where the founder stops/loses capability to work on the idea. Investors usually choose the incubator strategy to avoid this risk.
Liquidity Risk
The lack of a public market for trading venture capital-backed securities restricts investors from easily selling their holdings. As a result, investors may face challenges in accessing their capital before an exit event occurs, potentially leading to illiquidity of the investment.
Several articles and research papers have been published on the PME and the comparison of VC versus public stock performance. These studies often show that top-tier Venture Capital funds outperform public markets, while the median or average VC fund may underperform.
What is the minimum size for a VC fund?
Minimum investment amounts in VC funds vary widely, depending on the fund's size, strategy, and target investor base. They typically range from a few hundred thousand to several million dollars.
US Venture Capital has beaten the S&P 500's IRR by 19% over the last 25 years. Yet returns among VC investors vary wildly, because of the wrong approach.
Minimal Investment Is Expensive
These funds are typically only available to high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors. A hedge fund's minimum investment might range from $100,000 to $1 million. Venture capital funds usually require a minimum investment of $250,000 to $500,000 and sometimes higher.
The sharks are venture capitalists, meaning they are "self-made" millionaires and billionaires seeking lucrative business investment opportunities. While they are paid cast members of the show, they do rely on their own wealth in order to invest in the entrepreneurs' products and services.
Venture capitalists spend their time on this process of raising funds, finding startups to invest in, negotiating deal terms, and helping the startups grow. You could divide the job into these six areas: Sourcing – Finding new startups to invest in and making the initial outreach.
Average Time to Exit: 5-7 Years Top venture capital firms often invest during the Series A stage, targeting a 5-year exit timeline for their portfolio companies. By this point, startups usually have some market validation and are aiming to scale their operations.
The amount of venture debt available is calibrated to the amount of equity the company has raised, with loan sizes varying between 25% to 35% of the amount raised in the most recent equity round.
Founders typically give up 20-40% of their company's equity in a seed or series A financing. But this number could be much higher (or lower) depending on a number of factors that we will discuss shortly.
How the One Percent Rule Works. This simple calculation multiplies the purchase price of the property plus any necessary repairs by 1%. The result is a base level of monthly rent. It's also compared to the potential monthly mortgage payment to give the owner a better understanding of the property's monthly cash flow.
A 10x return means that a stock has grown 100% over 20 years. Also, if a stock has risen ten times, and you sell at the top, you have still made a 10x return on how much you invested.
Why avoid venture capital?
Because now the inevitable consequence, once you've taken VC funding, is that the objective of your company has changed: You're no longer building your company the way you like it. You're building your and the VCs company so that they can sell it, for a price higher than the one they paid. There are no alternatives.
Approximately 75% of venture-backed startups fail – the number is difficult to measure, however, and by some estimates it is far greater. In general, a startup can be said to fail when it ultimately falls short of reaching an exit at a valuation that would provide a return to all equity holders.
So, to keep things simple and tax-efficient for everyone involved, venture capital funds often prefer to invest in C-Corporations. In a C-Corporation, the profits and losses stay with the corporation itself, not passing directly through to individual partners.
The “loss ratio” at early-stage VC firms is often around 40% by logo, and 20%-30% by dollars. In other words, 4/10 may go bankrupt or at least lose money … but since the winners tend to get more than the losers, in the end, maybe “only” 20%-30% of the fund is lost in losers.
In order to start a VC Firm you need a track record. If you haven't already made some good investments — it's going to be tough to start your own fund. Go work at a fund first and make some good investments there.
