Fund vintage benchmarker
See which quartile your fund lands in against its vintage-year peers. Pick a strategy and vintage, enter your net IRR, and find where you sit versus the median and top-quartile line.
8.0%
15.0%
22.0%
Above median — competitive, within reach of the top-quartile line.
| Breakpoint | Net IRR | You |
|---|---|---|
| Top-quartile line (75th pct) | 22.0% | Below |
| Median (50th pct) | 15.0% | At or above |
| Bottom-quartile line (25th pct) | 8.0% | At or above |
Educational tool — not investment advice or a representation of actual benchmark returns. Built by aama.io.
About this tool
Fund performance is judged against peers of the same vintage year — the year a fund began investing — because market conditions and the J-curve make cross-vintage comparison misleading. Benchmarks report quartile breakpoints: the top-quartile (75th percentile), median and bottom-quartile (25th percentile) net IRR for each strategy and vintage.
This tool places your net IRR within its vintage cohort and tells you which quartile you land in — a key signal in LP reporting and fundraising.
How to use it
- Select your strategy and vintage year.
- Enter your fund's net IRR.
- Read your quartile placement against the top-quartile, median and bottom-quartile lines.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fund vintage year?
A fund's vintage year is the year it made its first investment (or its first capital call). Funds are benchmarked against peers of the same vintage because economic conditions and the J-curve make comparisons across vintages unreliable.
What is a top-quartile fund?
A top-quartile fund ranks in the best 25% of its vintage-and-strategy peer group on a chosen metric — usually net IRR or TVPI. The top-quartile breakpoint is the 75th-percentile return; funds at or above it are top quartile.
What is a good IRR for a private equity fund?
It depends on strategy and vintage, but mature buyout funds often show median net IRRs in the mid-teens, with top-quartile funds well above 20%. Venture has wider dispersion — higher top-quartile and lower bottom-quartile outcomes.