3
GLOBAL FUND PERFORMANCE REPORT (AS OF Q1 2022)
OVERVIEW
Overview
Private equity Venture capital Real estate Real assets Private debt Funds of funds Secondaries
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Rolling one-year horizon IRRs by strategy
Source: PitchBook | Geography: Global
*As of March 31, 2022
Hilary Wiek, CFA, CAIA
Lead Analyst, Fund Strategies & Sustainable Investing
Through the first quarter of 2022, one-year private fund
performance was still at historically high levels, as more
muted performance in Q1 2022 was still overcome by three
quarters of phenomenal 2021 performance. While well off
from the 42.8% one-year figure seen just three quarters
earlier, the 27.0% overall private capital return was still well
ahead of the 10-year average of 14.5%. Preliminary figures for
Q2 2022 do show a recognition that the macro environment
has shifted, as private capital is indicating a -1.1% return. In
the preliminary figures, PE and VC trailed the other private
fund strategies in Q2 2022, with the highest fliers of 2021
having further to fall back to recognize the new normal.
As often happens when the public markets fall dramatically,
private markets tread a less volatile path. While arguments
can and will be made that the muted volatility in private
funds versus public markets may not fully reflect reality,
private funds valuations are not indicating much concern
about the macro environment in comparison to the S&P
500. Inclusive of the preliminary results of Q2 2022, several
strategies continued to increase in value in the first half of
the year, although VC, PE, and private debt have all come
off their peaks. Compared to the 20.0% drop in the S&P,
however, the -6.7% VC return for the first six months through
June was much milder than one might have expected given
the headlines around the war in Ukraine, inflation, and the
possibility of entering a recession.
While private funds have not shown extreme volatility
overall, within strategies the median returns mask a fairly
high amount of dispersion, meaning that any one investor’s
experience of individual funds may vary widely from the
headline median numbers. As an example, while we report
that VC funds that launched between 2004 and 2017 had
a median IRR of 15.5%, top decile funds provided a 39.9%
return or better and bottom decile funds have returned
-6.7% or worse. Private debt continues to have the narrowest
band of top-to-bottom returns, with the median IRR of 8.5%
flanked by a top decile return of 15.7% and a bottom decile
of 1.5%. Funds of funds (FoF) and secondaries have seen a
nice positive skew to their return dispersion—top decile FoF
performed 15.2% better than the 12.5% median, while bottom
decile FoF only did 8.2% worse. Secondaries fund outcomes
ranged from 14.9% above to 8.8% below the 13.6% median.