Which Fund Vintage Years Have Produced the Best Private Equity Returns?

Data sourced from Dakota Private Markets, the private fund performance platform powered by Dakota. Learn More | Request Access

The 2015 vintage has produced the highest median net IRR of any private equity vintage from 2006 to 2022 in Dakota Marketplace, at 16.8%. The 2008 vintage has returned the most cash, with a median DPI of 2.05x. The 2018 to 2022 vintages sit at the other end: median DPI between 0.13x and 0.58x. This post ranks vintages by net IRR, TVPI, and DPI, and shows what the spread means for managers raising a fund today.

The Data: Private Equity Performance by Vintage Year

What the Data Shows

1. Crisis-era vintages delivered the most cash (2008 to 2011)

The median 2008 fund has returned 2.05x paid-in capital in distributions, the highest DPI of any vintage in the set, alongside a 16.2% median net IRR. The 2010 vintage posted the highest median TVPI at 2.15x, and the 2011 vintage holds the highest top-quartile IRR threshold among the 2008 to 2014 vintages at 19.1%. These funds are mature, so the returns are largely realized rather than marked.

2. 2013 to 2017 is the longest strong run

Five consecutive vintages posted median net IRRs between 13.0% and 16.8%, with median TVPI between 1.56x and 2.12x. The 2015 vintage leads all of them: 35 funds, a 16.8% median net IRR, and a 21.1% top-quartile threshold, the highest in the table. The 2016 vintage is next, with 41 funds, a 15.3% median, and a 2.01x median TVPI.

Distributions are lagging the multiples in this group. The 2017 vintage shows a 1.75x TVPI against a 1.36x DPI, so some of the value is still unrealized.

3. 2018 to 2022: strong marks, little cash back

Median net IRRs for these five vintages run from 10.3% to 12.8%, and median DPI runs from 0.13x to 0.58x. The 2018 vintage is roughly eight years old and has returned a median 0.37x. For the 2021 vintage, even the top DPI quartile starts at just 0.42x.

The 2021 vintage has the lowest median net IRR (10.3%) and the lowest top-quartile threshold (13.8%) in the table, with a 1.27x median TVPI. Treat the youngest vintages with care, since their IRRs rest on unrealized valuations. The 2022 vintage shows a 12.0% median IRR next to a 0.13x median DPI.

Spotlight: Francisco Partners IV, a 2015 Fund Above Its Cohort

Francisco Partners IV clears the top-quartile line for the 2015 vintage on all three measures. Dakota Marketplace shows a 24.7% net IRR, a 2.87x TVPI, and a 2.43x DPI as of 2Q26.

Source: Dakota Marketplace performance benchmarks, as of 2Q26 (June 30, 2026).

DPI is the number to watch. The fund has returned 2.43x paid-in capital in cash, 0.75x more than the median 2015 fund.

The fund was sized for technology. Francisco Partners announced $2.875 billion in total commitments in early 2015 (Kirkland & Ellis, March 9, 2015), and Law360 reported the technology-focused firm "blew past its target" to lock in nearly $3 billion (Law360, February 10, 2015). By September 2017, Buyouts reported that the Nebraska Investment Council described the fund as top quartile (Buyouts, September 15, 2017).

Vintage Sets the Baseline; the Manager Sets the Outcome

A top-quartile fund in a weak vintage can beat the median fund in the best one. The top-quartile threshold for 2018 is 19.2% and for 2022 is 17.0%, against a 16.8% median for 2015. Allocators comparing funds across vintages are comparing against different baselines.

The flip side also holds. A top-quartile 2021 fund, at 13.8%, sits below the median fund in the 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017 vintages. Vintage can lift or cap a fund, but it does not decide where a fund lands within its own cohort.

The spread within a cohort varies. In the 2008 vintage only 0.5 points separate the median (16.2%) from the top-quartile threshold (16.7%). In 2018 that gap is 6.4 points, and in 2019 it is 5.8. The wider the spread, the more a commitment to a specific manager matters.

Dakota Marketplace's public investment records list 21 investors in Francisco Partners IV: 11 public pension funds, 6 insurers, 3 endowments, and 1 Taft-Hartley plan. The nine public pension funds with a reported amount total $722 million.

Three of the nine, Oregon, CalSTRS, and Washington State, are Meketa clients and account for $430 million of the $722 million. Outside the public plans, Dakota shows the University of Michigan Investment Office ($35M), Michigan State University ($12.1M), the University of Houston System Endowment ($5M), the Central Pension Fund of the IUOE, and insurers including Prudential, Sentry ($14.9M), Brighthouse, MetLife, and Ameritas.

How to Position a Fund by Vintage

1. Quote quartile rank within the vintage, not a standalone IRR. A 14% net IRR is top quartile in the 2021 vintage (13.8% threshold) but sits below the median fund of the 2008, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017 vintages.

2. Pair every IRR with DPI. In the 2018 to 2022 vintages the median DPI is between 0.13x and 0.58x, so a prior fund with realized distributions stands out against its own cohort.

3. If your track record is 2008 to 2017, lead with realized returns. Those cohorts show median DPI between 1.36x and 2.05x, and the numbers are largely cash rather than marks.

4. If your track record is 2018 to 2022, lead with the realization path. Show what has been sold, what is under contract, and how remaining marks convert to DPI, since median IRRs of 10.3% to 12.8% will not carry the pitch alone.

5. State the cohort behind every benchmark. Name the source, the vintage, and the number of funds. Cohorts in this data range from 11 to 51 funds, and a quartile threshold from a small cohort moves with a single fund.

Dakota Private Markets gives allocators and GPs fund-level performance data (Net IRR, TVPI, DPI, RVPI) benchmarked at the strategy, sub-strategy, and vintage-year level, so lower middle market managers can be compared against true peers rather than the asset class as a whole.

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