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A benchmark tells you what good looks like for a vintage and category. The next question is always what’s inside that number. When an allocator or a GP pushes on how a benchmark was built, you need to be able to show the peer group, not just quote the figure.
In this article, we’ll walk through how Dakota Benchmarks now lets you click into the constituents behind any vintage, category, and metric, and how to use it to build a performance story you can defend.
What Benchmark Constituents Actually Show You
Dakota Benchmarks provides standardized fund performance benchmarks across Private Equity, Venture Capital, Real Assets/Infrastructure, Real Estate, and Private Credit. For each vintage and category, you can see Net IRR, TVPI, and DPI at top decile, top quartile, median, bottom quartile, and bottom decile. Now, each of those cells also shows the constituent funds behind the number.
The benchmarks are built quarterly by the Dakota Research team from Marketplace performance data. To see the constituents, open Dakota Benchmarks, pick a period and asset class, choose Net IRR, TVPI, or DPI, then click into any cell.
4 Use Cases for Dakota’s Benchmarks
Use It to Check That You’re Comparing Against a Fair Peer Group
A median is only as useful as the cohort behind it. Clicking into the constituents lets you see which funds make up the group and confirm that it’s a fair comparison set for your strategy, vintage, and category. If the cohort looks right, you can cite the peer group with confidence. If it doesn’t, you know before you put the number in front of anyone.
Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace to see the constituents behind the benchmarks for your strategy.
Use It to Answer “How Was This Benchmark Built?”
This matters most when someone challenges the number. An allocator or a GP may ask what’s in the cohort, or how the benchmark compares to another source. One firm asked how Dakota Benchmarks compare to another well-known data provider while building a pitch around a specific vintage and strategy. Showing exactly which funds sit in the cohort is the direct answer to that question, and it turns a debate about methodology into a conversation about the data itself.
Use It to Pull Cohort Details for Presentations
Details like how many funds are in a cohort used to take a request to the team. One firm asked us for a specific vintage and sub-strategy benchmark, including the number of funds in the cohort, for their annual meeting slides. That fund count is now one click away, with no request needed. If you’re putting benchmarks into an LP update, an annual meeting deck, or a pitch, you can pull the cohort details yourself and cite them accurately.
Use It to Compare Your Funds to Your Peers
GPs can now compare their own funds directly to their peers by clicking into the constituents behind each benchmark. Seeing the funds that sit in your cohort, not just where your number lands against the quartiles, gives you a clearer picture of where you stand and who you’re really being measured against.
Open the Cohort Before You Cite the Benchmark
Before your next pitch, LP update, or fundraising deck, open Dakota Benchmarks, choose your period and asset class, and click into the cell that matches your fund. Check the constituents, then use the benchmark with the peer group to back it up.
Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace to see Dakota Benchmarks and the funds behind each number.
FAQs
What can I see when I click into a benchmark? The constituent funds behind the number for any vintage, category, and metric (Net IRR, TVPI, or DPI) at top decile, top quartile, median, bottom quartile, and bottom decile.
Which asset classes do Dakota Benchmarks cover? Private Equity, Venture Capital, Real Assets/Infrastructure, Real Estate, and Private Credit.
How often are the benchmarks updated? Quarterly. The Dakota Research team builds them from Marketplace performance data.
How do I see the constituents? Open Dakota Benchmarks, pick a period and asset class, choose Net IRR, TVPI, or DPI, then click into any cell.
