Dear reader,

This week I put together 5 graphs concerning the venture capital asset class that, in my opinion, few have seen before. I hope I'll make you reflect in just a few minutes with these 5 images.

Have a great weekend,

Simone

The usual suspects in the top 3 spots for exits

When it comes to the most successful venture capital exits, the top three spots feature familiar logos – no surprises there. However, the numbers behind these exits are interesting.

Between 2005 and 2024 – a span of 19 years – there have been only 40 to 50 deals that have significantly boosted the fortunes of large funds. That's an average of about 2 landmark exits per year.

This week someone hit the jackpot 🎰

It seems that Google is buying Wiz, a cybersecurity startup, for $23 billion. Sequoia invested $21 million in 2020 (4 years ago) at a $150 million valuation. In 4 years, that's a 153x return on investment. I'm told that the founders will each pocket $2 billion.

Darwinism but harder….

Believe it or not, only 1 fund manager out of 10 is able to raise fund 2 in VCland at the moment. #brutal

1 fund out of 2 will not give you your money back

Out of 1200+ funds, only 621 will achieve a DPI (Distributions to Paid-In capital) greater than 1, only 92 will return 3 times your invested money, and only 34, which is 2.8%, will give you 5 times your invested money after 10 years.

How important is the track record for VCs?

Previous performance doesn’t seem to matter in alternatives world