Venture capital performance showed positive returns across all investment horizons ending June 30, 2008, according to Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).


The one-year all venture private equity performance index (PEPI) showed the greatest change from the first quarter 2008, with an 8.2 point decrease to 5.1% in second quarter 2008. Historically, short-term horizons show significant fluctuations quarter over quarter based on current exit market conditions. The closed IPO window in the second quarter did drive lower one-year return numbers overall. The next largest consecutive quarterly change occurred in the three-year time horizon where all venture PEPI decreased by 1.1 points quarter-over-quarter. Five-year and ten-year performance also posted modest declines from the previous quarter, decreasing .2 and .6 percentage points, respectively. Twenty-year performance figures showed a small quarter-over quarter increase to 16.9% from 16.8% in the first quarter.

"We have yet to see the full impact of the capital markets crisis in the venture capital performance numbers," said Mark Heesen, president of the NVCA. "We will likely begin to see pressure on both short and long term returns in the next several years as the highly prosperous years of 1998 and 1999 fall out of the ten-year numbers and are replaced with most recent years when the IPO window has been sealed shut."