Data sourced from Joe, the private fund performance platform powered by Dakota. Learn More | Request Access
A software-focused middle market buyout fund sat in the second quartile of the broad middle market buyout benchmark for years. Measured against a peer group of software-focused middle market buyout funds in its own vintage, it moved into the first quartile. The performance never changed. The peer group did.
That is the case for taking quartile rankings seriously, and for being precise about what one is actually measuring. Dakota's own vintage-year benchmark data shows how much is at stake in getting the comparison right.
The Data: Dispersion Across Vintages
Joe, Powered by Dakota’s performance & benchmarking data covers private equity funds across vintage years, with quartile bands calculated on net IRR, TVPI, and DPI. Pulling the 2017 through 2021 vintages:
|
Vintage
|
Fund Count
|
Q1 Net IRR
|
Median Net IRR
|
Q3 Net IRR
|
Q1 TVPI
|
Median TVPI
|
|
2017
|
2
|
14.3%
|
13.0%
|
11.8%
|
1.86x
|
1.74x
|
|
2018
|
8
|
16.1%
|
11.1%
|
6.7%
|
1.68x
|
1.43x
|
|
2019
|
8
|
17.4%
|
12.4%
|
12.1%
|
1.78x
|
1.68x
|
|
2020
|
7
|
19.9%
|
13.6%
|
8.5%
|
1.55x
|
1.28x
|
|
2021
|
12
|
13.3%
|
7.5%
|
5.5%
|
1.22x
|
1.17x
|
As of 2Q26. Q1 denotes the top-quartile boundary (75th percentile of net IRR), Q3 the bottom-quartile boundary (25th percentile). Fund counts reflect the sample underlying each vintage cohort in Joe.
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Three things in this table matter for how a fund manager should present performance.
1. The Spread Does Not Compress Over Time
The Q1 to Q3 gap runs from roughly 200 basis points in 2019 to nearly 950 in 2018, and the youngest cohort here, 2021, already shows an 800+ basis point spread. Dispersion is not something that resolves itself as a vintage matures. It has to be addressed head-on in how a manager frames their result, not assumed away.
2. Median Is Not Close to Top-Quartile
In 2019, Q1 (17.4%) and median (12.4%) sit 500 basis points apart. In 2021, the gap is nearly 600 basis points. A fund at median in most of these vintages is a meaningfully different story than a fund at Q1. Fund managers should be exact about which threshold they are citing rather than letting "strong performance" stand in for a specific number.
3. Sample Size Changes How Much a Quartile Claim Should Carry
The 2017 cohort here reflects 2 funds. The 2021 cohort reflects 12. A quartile position calculated against 2 funds is a much weaker signal than one calculated against 12, even when both produce a clean-looking number. Ask how many funds sit behind a quartile claim before treating it as decisive, whether it is someone else's claim or your own.
What Allocators Look For
What makes them say yes:
- A quartile claim with the vintage cohort and sample size stated alongside it
- Full distribution shown (Q1, median, Q3), not a single favorable comparison point
- DPI presented separately from TVPI on younger funds, since a high TVPI with low DPI is a projection rather than a result
What makes them say no:
- A quartile claim with no stated cohort or sample size behind it
- Cross-vintage comparisons that ignore how much entry pricing and exit conditions vary year to year
For the mechanics of constructing a peer group by strategy, geography, and portfolio company sector rather than asset class and vintage alone, see How to Benchmark Private Equity Fund Performance: A Step-by-Step Guide.
Joe, Powered by Dakota tracks Net IRR, TVPI, and DPI across 18,000+ private funds spanning seven asset classes, with quartile bands calculated by vintage year so a fund's ranking reflects its actual cohort, not a broad, undifferentiated category. Fund managers and allocators use Joe to pull the vintage-year and quartile data behind a claim, check the sample size backing it, and build a custom peer group by strategy, geography, and portfolio company sector instead of accepting someone else's comparison set.
Request access to see full private equity performance benchmarking and allocator coverage in Joe, powered by Dakota.
