One way VC firms measure performance is based on a metric called internal rate of return. IRR measures the financial returns of the assets in the fund. The key to understanding IRR is to know whether it's referring to net or gross IRR.
Gross IRR is the simpler of the two. It's the deal IRR. In other words, what the return on the investment would be if you liquidated the assets today, based on the cash flows to and from the fund. Let's say the fund invested $1M into a company and one year later, the investment is worth $1.5M. The gross IRR for the deal would be 50%. Pretty straightforward.
Net IRR is slightly more complicated because instead of using the cash flows from the fund, you use the cash flows from the limited partners. But not every limited partner pays into the fund at the same time, and not all capital gets redistributed back to investors at once. That's one reason why VCs don't like to call all the capital in the beginning of the fund lifecycle - it can hurt IRR. You also have to subtract management fees and carried interest. Therefore, net IRR is always going to be less than gross IRR.
Another way to think about it is gross IRR measures the VC's ability to pick winners, whereas net IRR is a function of picking winners and fund structure. The higher the management fees and carries interest, the lower the net IRR for investors.
I have read that a good way to estimate net IRR is to subtract 8-10% from the gross. If that's true, we would probably use that for internal products we like to keep on the shelf.
Gross IRR is the simpler of the two. It's the deal IRR. In other words, what the return on the investment would be if you liquidated the assets today, based on the cash flows to and from the fund. Let's say the fund invested $1M into a company and one year later, the investment is worth $1.5M. The gross IRR for the deal would be 50%. Pretty straightforward.
Net IRR is slightly more complicated because instead of using the cash flows from the fund, you use the cash flows from the limited partners. But not every limited partner pays into the fund at the same time, and not all capital gets redistributed back to investors at once. That's one reason why VCs don't like to call all the capital in the beginning of the fund lifecycle - it can hurt IRR. You also have to subtract management fees and carried interest. Therefore, net IRR is always going to be less than gross IRR.
Another way to think about it is gross IRR measures the VC's ability to pick winners, whereas net IRR is a function of picking winners and fund structure. The higher the management fees and carries interest, the lower the net IRR for investors.
I have read that a good way to estimate net IRR is to subtract 8-10% from the gross. If that's true, we would probably use that for internal products we like to keep on the shelf.