Cambridge Associates related stories
All articles and analysis
peHUB Wire: Thursday, June 3, 2010Random Ramblings
- VCs on Why Not To Invest in Venture
Ask a VC about the quality of their own firm’s portfolio, and the reply always contains a glowing review about the world domination potential of every investment. Ask about the venture asset class in general, however, and speakers on the VC Panel at this week’s Reuters Technology Summit got a lot more critical. It’s a pretty universal view that there’s too much capital available. And overall performance, well, it speaks for itself. “Venture returns have been poor for a decade, and I think risk-adjusted they will be poor for a long time,” says Khosla Ventures partner David Weiden. Going forward, he predicts, the very best firms will continue to perform very well, and the rest won’t.
- peHUB Wire: Monday, May 17, 2010
Random Ramblings
- peHUB Wire: Monday, May 17, 2010
Random Ramblings
- New VC Fund Performance Data: Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Losses
Cambridge Associates and the National Venture Capital Association today released new VC fund performance data, through the end of Q4 2009. I haven't had a chance to examine all of it yet, except to say that short-term performance improved, but 5-year and 10-year performance sagged. Not surprising on that last part, now that 10-year figures no longer include 1999 (and, as such, have moved into negative territory). Plan to have a bit more on this later this morning. For now, here is the press release /wp-content/uploads//performancereleasefinalq42009.pdf and the benchmark report /wp-content/uploads//benchmarkreport.pdf
- peHUB Wire: Friday, May 14, 2010
Random Ramblings
- peHUB Wire: Friday, May 14, 2010
Random Ramblings
- LPs offer advice to VCs
New NVCA chairman Kate Mitchell calls the LPs’ advice ‘common sense’
- The Future of Venture Capital Is Gross
I spent a bit of time yesterday perusing U.S. VC performance numbers from Cambridge Associates, which are available on the firm’s website https://www.cambridgeassociates.com/pdf/Venture%20Capital%20Index.pdf Data is through the end of Q3 2009, and is predictably depressing. If you exclude 10-year returns (because they still include part of dotcom-delirious 2000), the net means either are negative or pathetically positive. For example, the best number would be six-year net mean IRRs, which come in at just 5.65 percent. And those are pooled. If you look instead at vintage years, it’s even worse (best one post-1998 is 3.75 percent). All of this plays into the “VC model is broken” mantra that many now consider conventional wisdom.
- peHUB Wire: Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Random Ramblings