October 05, 2026

The Largest Venture Capital Funds and Performance vs Small Venture Capital Funds

3:20

Data sourced from Dakota Private Markets, the private fund performance platform powered by Dakota. Learn More | Request Access

The fundraising environment in venture capital continues to concentrate in fewer and fewer names. The largest VC managers continue to raise multi-billion dollar funds, while the smaller, niche players face challenges with raising capital.

Notable venture funds raised so far in 2026

Rank	Fund	Manager	Announced	Size
1	Thrive Capital X	Thrive Capital	Feb 2026	$10B+
2	Growth Fund V	Andreessen Horowitz	Jan 2026, expanded Aug 2026	$8.5B
3	Expansion fund	Sequoia Capital	Apr 2026 (reported)	~$7B
4	Founders Fund Growth IV	Founders Fund	Mar 2026	~$6.0B
5	Leaders Fund V	Accel	Apr 2026	$4B

Do larger VC funds outperform their smaller peers?

According to Dakota performance data, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

We analyzed 2010 to 2016 VC fund vintages (as these funds are fully or nearly fully mature), with a median fund size of roughly $200 million. Dakota Private Markets carries Net IRR, TVPI, and DPI on each fund record, and the custom benchmarking dataset allows you to cut those figures by vintage, geography, and more.

Bigger isn't necessarily better

Fund size	Quartile	Net IRR	Net TVPI	DPI
$200M and above	Bottom	9.35%	1.62x	0.73x
$200M and above	Median	15.3%	2.19x	1.25x
$200M and above	Top	21.0%	2.90x	1.78x
Below $200M	Bottom	8.06%	1.63x	0.93x
Below $200M	Median	14.9%	2.21x	1.39x
Below $200M	Top	23.3%	3.07x	2.29x

Source: Dakota Private Markets VC performance data, 2010 to 2016 vintages,

From an IRR perspective, top performing smaller funds post better returns than their larger peers. However, the dispersion from bottom to top quartile is wider.

TVPI seems to be a wash, but smaller funds have done a better job returning capital across the board.

Consistency versus selection

Smaller funds tend to produce the best outcomes because the math is easier. A $100 million fund needs roughly $300 million in exit value to return 3x, while a $5 billion fund needs $15 billion, and few companies ever get there. Smaller funds can also lead early rounds, build real ownership at low entry prices, and hold fewer, higher-conviction positions, which is where the power-law winners come from.

The tradeoff here is consistency. While the numbers look favorable for smaller funds, manager selection matters much more. The largest funds tend to have more consistent track records and tighter dispersion vs smaller funds.

Scale can protect you on the downside, and strong manager selection can provide substantial upside.

Dakota Private Markets: benchmark venture funds by vintage and size band

Dakota Private Markets carries Net IRR, TVPI, DPI, and RVPI on 18,000+ funds, so you can compare a fund against peers of the same vintage, strategy, and size band instead of a single market average.

Request Access