Data sourced from Dakota Private Markets, the private fund performance platform powered by Dakota. Learn More | Request Access
A percentile ranking is only as reliable as the records underneath it. Dakota does not accept a fund's performance figures on a GP's self-report alone, and every record goes through a defined verification process before a client sees it. This post walks through that process.
A Benchmark Is Only as Good as Its Least-Checked Record
Peer benchmarking works when every fund in the peer set has been measured the same way. One unverified record, or one figure taken straight from a GP's marketing presentation, and the percentile ranking around it stops meaning anything. That is the standard Dakota builds against.
Dakota Private Markets maintains performance records on 18,000+ funds and 159,000+ performance records across seven asset classes. Allocators can filter by asset class, vintage year, Net IRR percentile, geography, and fund size in Dakota's peer benchmarking tool.
The Five Steps Between a Source Document and a Client Screen
Every performance record moves through the same sequence before it is published.
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Step
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What happens
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What it protects against
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- Source
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Data is pulled from primary materials, regulatory filings, consultant reports, pension board documents, fund presentations, and daily industry news.
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Single-channel bias
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- Cross-check
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Each figure is matched against at least one independent source before acceptance, wherever an independent source exists.
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GP self-report as the only evidence
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- Normalize
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Figures are standardized to consistent definitions of Net IRR, TVPI, and DPI.
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Apples-to-oranges comparisons across providers, strategies, and vintages
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- Research review
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Dakota’s research team reviews the record before it goes live. Nothing is auto-populated.
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Errors that a script cannot see
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- Refresh
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Records are re-verified as new documents, filings, and disclosures arrive.
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Stale marks sitting in a live peer set
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The cross-check is the step that matters most. A record built only on a GP's own presentation reflects one party's view. A record matched against a pension board document or consultant report has been confirmed by a second source.
Why Managers Should Care About Step Two
If your numbers differ between your PPM, your DDQ, your LP letters, and what a database shows, a cross-check is exactly where that gap surfaces. Our research team wrote about this from the entry side in Top 3 Best Practices for Entering Performance Data: standardize methodology across every venue, lead with net returns, and keep your entries current. A manager who follows those three habits is far more likely to clear verification without a question.
Normalization matters just as much on the allocator side. TVPI, DPI, and RVPI only compare cleanly when the underlying definitions match, which is the premise behind Dakota's custom benchmarking dataset. Allocators are screening managers through databases before the first meeting, so the record they see there is often the first version of your track record they read.
Bottom Line
Dakota's benchmarks are built on records that have been sourced, cross-checked, normalized, and reviewed, not copied from a manager's presentation.
Dakota Private Markets
Dakota Private Markets pairs verified fund performance with GP profiles, portfolio company holdings, and private company transaction data, so allocators and fundraisers can benchmark against a peer set they can trust. See how the data is built, filtered, and used in a live walkthrough.
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