Performance Measurement Survey 2021

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 2021. 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.

With a significant presence in the UK, developed over the past 40 years, private equity and venture capital funds provide companies with the finance and know-how to deliver sustainable business growth. Active ownership, over the medium to long term, delivers economic and social value to those involved in the businesses (from employees, management and owners on the one hand, to customers and suppliers on the other) and a wide group of stakeholders (from local communities and local and regional economies, to national policy makers focused on issues such as climate change, diversity and inclusion and social issues).

Both private equity and venture capital firms are focused on delivering sustainable growth for the companies in which they invest: venture capital funds typically support early stage and younger companies, holding minority stakes in the businesses, while private equity funds typically acquire controlling stakes in more established businesses.

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.

In 2021 we received responses from 114 members out of a total eligible pool of 164 members, a response rate of 70%. For comparison, in 2020 we received response from 119 members out of a total of 158 who were eligible.

A summary version of this document can be found in the Performance Measurement Survey Highlights brochure.

For those who wish to explore the data further, we have made the data tables in this report available for download on the BVCA website here, in excel format. We hope this will prove a valuable resource for industry participants, researchers and others wishing to find out more about the performance of private equity and venture capital funds.

Some key findings from this year’s report include:

• The research shows that the industry has collectively generated a return for investors of 22.6% per annum over the last decade.
• These annual returns are equivalent to more than doubling an initial investment, generating a 2.01x return on capital invested across the past decade and 1.85x capital invested since 1980, including the value of unrealised investments as at 31 December 2021.