Data sourced from Dakota Private Markets, the private fund performance platform powered by Dakota. Learn More | Request Access
Dakota Private Markets tracks performance on hundreds of private infrastructure funds, giving investment firms the data needed to benchmark managers and monitor vintage-year performance. This post breaks down infrastructure fund performance by vintage year using Dakota's benchmark dataset, covering 356 tracked fund performance records across vintages 2016 through 2025, from funds still deploying capital to funds now nine years into harvest.
The Data
The table below shows quartile benchmarks by vintage year: Net IRR, TVPI, and DPI, pulled from Dakota's Private Infrastructure performance dataset in September 2026. Sample size matters: 2017 through 2024 vintages carry real statistical weight (17 to 38 funds each).
|
Vintage
|
Funds (n)
|
Top Quartile Net IRR
|
Median Net IRR
|
Bottom Quartile Net IRR
|
Median TVPI
|
Median DPI
|
|
2016
|
26
|
11.60%
|
9.00%
|
1.39%
|
1.26x
|
0.49x
|
|
2017
|
37
|
13.93%
|
9.40%
|
6.60%
|
0.02x**
|
0.72x
|
|
2018
|
35
|
11.00%
|
8.20%
|
2.34%
|
1.20x
|
0.13x
|
|
2019
|
22
|
12.21%
|
7.45%
|
2.21%
|
1.29x
|
0.14x
|
|
2020
|
36
|
12.13%
|
9.80%
|
1.38%
|
1.05x
|
0.16x
|
|
2021
|
33
|
10.49%
|
6.25%
|
1.21%
|
1.06x
|
0.09x
|
|
2022
|
25
|
13.85%
|
9.20%
|
1.11%
|
1.07x
|
0.09x
|
|
2023
|
38
|
9.06%
|
1.11%
|
-0.05%
|
0.97x
|
0.09x
|
|
2024
|
17
|
23.23%
|
2.90%
|
-2.30%
|
1.03x
|
0.06x
|
**The 2017 vintage's median TVPI of 0.02x sits inconsistently against its own 1.41x first-quartile and 2.34x max. Likely a data artifact; flagged rather than corrected here.
***2025 vintage figures come from just 2 funds. Treat this row as a preview, not a benchmark.
1. Distributions Lag Longer in Infrastructure Than the Asset Class's Reputation Suggests
Infrastructure is sold on current income: contracted cash flows, regulated assets, yield from day one. The benchmark data tells a more patient story. Every vintage from 2021 through 2024 shows a median DPI at or below 0.16x, and even the 2018 and 2019 vintages, six to seven years in, sit at just 0.13x and 0.14x.
Allocators evaluating a 2022, 2023, or 2024-vintage infrastructure fund on distributions alone will see numbers that look thin relative to the asset class's income narrative. TVPI and asset-level markups are the more useful early signal. The DPI ramp only shows up clearly in the oldest cohorts, where 2016 and 2017 post median DPI of 0.49x and 0.72x.
2. 2016 and 2017 Vintages Show What a Mature Infrastructure Portfolio Actually Returns
The two oldest vintages in this dataset post the highest median DPI of any cohort (0.49x and 0.72x, against 0.06x to 0.16x for vintages 2020 and later) alongside solid median Net IRRs (9.00% and 9.40%). That gap is the clearest evidence here that infrastructure's income case is real, it just realizes on a nine-to-ten year clock rather than a two-to-three year one.
Request access to see how Dakota Private Markets benchmarks a fund's Net IRR, TVPI, DPI, and RVPI against its actual vintage-year peer group, not a blended index that lumps six-year-old funds in with six-month-old ones.
3. Dispersion Is Wider Than Infrastructure's "Stable Asset Class" Reputation Implies
Look past the medians at the range column. The 2021 vintage spans -16.51% to 76.80%. The 2023 vintage spans -26.55% to 161.59% before the outlier is even excluded. For an asset class often pitched to allocators as the low-volatility complement to private equity, that is a wide band, and a reminder that manager and strategy selection matter as much in infrastructure benchmarking as anywhere else in private markets.
4. 2025 Vintage: Too Early to Benchmark
The 2025 cohort (n=2) is presented for completeness only. A median Net IRR of 11.53% built from two funds is not a market signal, it is two data points. Allocators sizing up a 2025-vintage infrastructure fund should ask managers directly about deployment pace rather than requesting IRR or DPI figures that do not yet mean anything at this sample size.
Uncover Infrastructure Market Intelligence with Dakota Private Markets
Dakota Private Markets tracks 356+ private infrastructure funds, filterable by vintage year, fund size, IRR percentile, and sub-strategy, benchmarked against the peer group that actually matches where a fund sits in its life.
Get access to Dakota Private Markets and see TVPI, DPI, and Net IRR standardized at the fund level across 356+ tracked private infrastructure funds spanning vintages 2016 through 2025.
