Data sourced from Joe, the private fund performance platform powered by Dakota. Learn More | Request Access
Vintage year is the single largest determinant of private equity fund returns. The same GP, the same strategy, and the same team can produce a top-quartile fund or a third-quartile fund based almost entirely on when capital was deployed. The spread between the best and worst PE vintage years over the past 15 years exceeds 400 to 600 basis points of net IRR (PitchBook, 2025).
Joe tracks 14,000+ private fund benchmarks across asset classes. Filtered to private equity and sorted by vintage year, the data covers 5,139 funds from 2004 through 2025. This post presents the top-quartile IRR benchmarks by vintage year drawn directly from Joe's benchmark dataset, with context on what the numbers mean for fund managers preparing to raise capital.
The Data: Top-Quartile PE IRR by Vintage Year
The table below reflects Joe benchmark data for private equity funds, showing the top-quartile IRR threshold by vintage year. Data as of June 30, 2026.
|
Vintage
|
Top-Quartile IRR
|
|
2004
|
13.3%
|
|
2005
|
11.5%
|
|
2006
|
12.6%
|
|
2007
|
12.2%
|
|
2008
|
15.6%
|
|
2009
|
18.5%
|
|
2010
|
18.8%
|
|
2011
|
19.2%
|
|
2012
|
18.0%
|
|
2013
|
19.3%
|
|
2014
|
19.5%
|
|
2015
|
19.9%
|
|
2016
|
21.6%
|
|
2017
|
21.3%
|
|
2018
|
20.0%
|
|
2019
|
19.8%
|
|
2020
|
18.8%
|
|
2021
|
15.8%
|
|
2022
|
21.6%
|
|
2023
|
27.3%
|
|
2024
|
N/M
|
|
2025
|
N/M
|
Source: Dakota Marketplace Performance Benchmarks, as of June 30, 2026. N/M = not yet meaningful; funds too early-stage to produce reliable IRR figures.
What the Data Shows
Post-crisis vintages outperformed on a sustained basis. The 2008 and 2009 vintages delivered top-quartile IRRs of 15.6% and 18.5% respectively, well above the mid-2000s cohort that preceded them. Managers who deployed capital during the financial crisis acquired assets at distressed valuations, and the decade-long bull market that followed produced outsized returns. The 2009 vintage in particular ranks among the strongest in the dataset.
The 2011 to 2017 window was the best sustained run in the dataset. Top-quartile IRR thresholds ranged from 19.2% to 21.6% across seven consecutive vintages. This period combined reasonable entry multiples, improving credit conditions, and strong exit markets. The spread between the best and worst buyout vintage years over the past 15 years exceeds 400 to 600 basis points of net IRR (PitchBook, 2025). The 2011 to 2017 cohort sits at the top of that spread.
2016 and 2022 tie for the highest top-quartile IRR threshold in the dataset at 21.6%. The 2016 vintage benefited from a full investment and exit cycle completed before the 2022 rate shock. The 2022 figure is more surprising: funds deployed into a rising rate environment are showing early elevated returns, likely because entry multiples compressed materially from the 2021 peak and the best managers took advantage.
2021 is the clear underperformer among mature vintages at 15.8%. Elevated entry multiples, slower exits, and a public equity market that delivered 12 to 15% annualized returns over the same period have compressed the PE premium for this cohort (Bain and Company, 2025). Funds that deployed at 15 to 20x EBITDA in 2021 face a harder path to exits at competitive returns.
2023 shows a top-quartile IRR of 27.3%, but treat this with caution. Funds from this vintage are still in the early stages of deployment and have minimal realized value. Early IRR figures for young vintages are mathematically volatile and typically compress as capital is drawn down. The number is notable but not yet comparable to mature vintages.
2024 and 2025 are not yet meaningful. Top-quartile benchmarks require sufficient fund maturity to produce reliable figures. Both vintages show N/M across the dataset.
How LPs Use These Benchmarks
Allocators do not evaluate fund performance in isolation. Every IRR conversation happens in vintage year context. A 15% net IRR in a tough vintage year like 2007 to 2008 carries more weight with LPs than 15% in a tailwind vintage like 2010 to 2012 (Cambridge Associates US PE/VC Benchmark, 2024).
Three things allocators look at when benchmarking a fund against vintage peers:
IRR vs. top-quartile threshold. The question is not whether a fund generated a good absolute return. It is where the fund sits relative to peers who deployed in the same market conditions. A fund above the top-quartile threshold shown in the table above has cleared the bar that most institutional allocators use as a re-up qualifier.
DPI alongside IRR. DPI has overtaken IRR as the metric that drives LP re-up decisions, with 74% of institutional LPs now ranking realized distributions as their primary evaluation criterion (ILPA, 2024). A strong IRR supported by actual distributions is a fundamentally different conversation than a strong IRR built on unrealized NAV. For vintages from 2015 through 2020, DPI is the number that closes or kills re-up conversations.
PME as the benchmark behind the benchmark. US buyout maintains a 200 to 400 basis point premium over the S&P 500, but this gap has narrowed as public equity returns strengthened (Cambridge Associates, 2024). LPs running pension or endowment portfolios need PE to justify its illiquidity premium. PME above 1.0 is the minimum bar, and the best managers clear it by a meaningful margin.
What This Means for Fund Managers Raising Capital
If your vintage is 2016 to 2019, your IRR benchmark is 19.7% to 21.6%. These are the most scrutinized vintages right now because they are mature enough to show real DPI but recent enough that many GPs are still working through exits. Top-quartile positioning in this cohort is a strong re-up signal. Below median in a 2016 to 2019 fund with low DPI is a difficult fundraising position.
If your vintage is 2021, context is everything. The top-quartile threshold is 15.8%, the lowest of any vintage since 2007. LPs know this. Coming in at 14% for a 2021 vintage is not the same failure it would be for a 2016 vintage. Frame the macro environment, show disciplined entry multiples, and lead with DPI wherever possible.
If your vintage is 2022 or 2023, early IRR figures work in your favor but require framing. The elevated early returns visible in both vintages reflect compressed entry multiples post-2021 and a more selective deployment pace. Use the benchmarks to show relative positioning, but be explicit that the figures are early-stage and that the comparable universe is limited.
Top-quartile is the threshold, not the destination. The top-quartile threshold for PE buyout sits at approximately 18 to 20% net IRR across mature vintages, with median at 13 to 16% (Cambridge Associates US PE/VC Benchmark, 2024). Clearing the top-quartile line matters. The distance above it matters more.
The Joe, Powered by Dakota PE Benchmark Database
Joe tracks 14,000+ private fund benchmarks across private equity, private credit, private real estate, infrastructure, and hedge funds. The PE benchmark set covers 5,139 funds filterable by vintage year, sub-asset class, fund AUM, IRR quartile, TVPI, and DPI.
Filter examples:
- Private equity top-quartile IRR benchmarks by vintage year, 2010 to 2024
- Buyout vs. growth equity IRR thresholds for the same vintage cohort
- TVPI and DPI benchmarks for funds at specific maturity stages
- IRR quartile distribution across sub-asset classes for a target vintage
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