Industry Performance

VIEW FULL REPORT VIEW HIGHLIGHTS VIEW DATA PACK

Introduction

This report has been produced by the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) to demonstrate the returns generated for investors by our members to 31 December 2020. The statistics in this report are the results of the BVCA’s Performance Measurement Survey, an annual survey of fund level cash flows and valuations collected from our members.

In 2020 we received responses from 119 members out of a total eligible pool of 158 members, a response rate of 75%. For comparison, in 2019 we received response from 117 members out of a total of 154 who were eligible. 

The Performance Measurement Survey looks at funds which invest in businesses at all stages of the growth lifecycle – from venture capital funds specialising in start-ups to large buyout funds investing in global corporations. We at the BVCA firmly believe that private equity and venture capital funds are an exciting and attractive investment opportunity for pension schemes and other investors and the results of this survey show us why.

Key points

• A new metric looking at the performance of private equity and venture capital funds has revealed a strong industry return of 19.6% per annum over the last decade. This compares to an industry return since 1980 (the first year for which the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) has data available) of 14.6% per annum.


• These annual returns are equivalent to investors nearly doubling their money, getting a 1.9x return on capital invested over the past decade and 1.8x capital invested since 1980, including the value of unrealised investments as at 31 December 2020.