Data sourced from Dakota Private Markets, the private fund performance platform powered by Dakota. Learn More | Request Access
The fundraising environment in venture capital continues to concentrate in fewer and fewer names. The largest VC managers continue to raise multi-billion dollar funds, while the smaller, niche players face challenges with raising capital.
|
Rank |
Fund |
Manager |
Announced |
Size |
|
1 |
Thrive Capital X |
Thrive Capital |
Feb 2026 |
$10B+ |
|
2 |
Growth Fund V |
Andreessen Horowitz |
Jan 2026, expanded Aug 2026 |
$8.5B |
|
3 |
Expansion fund |
Sequoia Capital |
Apr 2026 (reported) |
~$7B |
|
4 |
Founders Fund Growth IV |
Founders Fund |
Mar 2026 |
~$6.0B |
|
5 |
Leaders Fund V |
Accel |
Apr 2026 |
According to Dakota performance data, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
We analyzed 2010 to 2016 VC fund vintages (as these funds are fully or nearly fully mature), with a median fund size of roughly $200 million. Dakota Private Markets carries Net IRR, TVPI, and DPI on each fund record, and the custom benchmarking dataset allows you to cut those figures by vintage, geography, and more.
|
Fund size |
Quartile |
Net IRR |
Net TVPI |
DPI |
|
$200M and above |
Bottom |
9.35% |
1.62x |
0.73x |
|
$200M and above |
Median |
15.3% |
2.19x |
1.25x |
|
$200M and above |
Top |
21.0% |
2.90x |
1.78x |
|
Below $200M |
Bottom |
8.06% |
1.63x |
0.93x |
|
Below $200M |
Median |
14.9% |
2.21x |
1.39x |
|
Below $200M |
Top |
23.3% |
3.07x |
2.29x |
Source: Dakota Private Markets VC performance data, 2010 to 2016 vintages,
From an IRR perspective, top performing smaller funds post better returns than their larger peers. However, the dispersion from bottom to top quartile is wider.
TVPI seems to be a wash, but smaller funds have done a better job returning capital across the board.
Smaller funds tend to produce the best outcomes because the math is easier. A $100 million fund needs roughly $300 million in exit value to return 3x, while a $5 billion fund needs $15 billion, and few companies ever get there. Smaller funds can also lead early rounds, build real ownership at low entry prices, and hold fewer, higher-conviction positions, which is where the power-law winners come from.
The tradeoff here is consistency. While the numbers look favorable for smaller funds, manager selection matters much more. The largest funds tend to have more consistent track records and tighter dispersion vs smaller funds.
Scale can protect you on the downside, and strong manager selection can provide substantial upside.
Dakota Private Markets carries Net IRR, TVPI, DPI, and RVPI on 18,000+ funds, so you can compare a fund against peers of the same vintage, strategy, and size band instead of a single market average.