Fund performance: Texas County’s mid-decade portfolio sees decline

The valuation reset now going on in venture capital has hit the mid-decade portfolio at Texas County and District Retirement System.

The money manager, which is generally bullish on venture, has backed 10 funds with vintages of 2006 to 2009. All but one saw its performance decline over the 15-month period ended in December 2015, according to a recent portfolio report.

One fund that felt the pullback hard was Khosla Ventures III. Its IRR slumped by 40 percent, the report shows. Oak Investment Partners XII also struggled.

The portfolio favors larger funds with an early- and multi-stage approach to investing. Three of the funds are more than $1 billion in size and five others range from $530 million to $900 million.

The top fund is Technology Crossover Ventures VII from 2008, which had an IRR of 21.44 percent as of December, the report shows.

Neck and neck for second place were OrbiMed Private Investments III and New Enterprise Associates 13. The OrbiMed fund from 2007 had an IRR of 18.9 percent as of December, and at its heels, the NEA fund had an IRR of 18.86 percent.

The portfolio holds Draper Fisher Jurvetson X from 2008 (with an IRR of 13.77 percent and also suffering a decline) and Highland Capital Partners VIII (with an IRR of 5.95 percent).

One of the worst decliners over the period was Khosla Ventures’ third fund from 2009. Its IRR as of December was 9.67 percent, down from 16.2 percent in September 2014. Oak Investment Partners XII from 2006 saw its IRR fall to 2.22 percent from 4.11 percent.

The 10 funds are listed in the accompanying table along with commitment levels, distributions and IRRs.

Downloadable Data in Excel: tcdrs-venture-funds-2006-to-2009

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