Mark Boslet

The majority of the Washington State Investment Board’s venture funds from the past decade are above water, but improvement has come slowly to this varied portfolio The pension fund manager has 18 directly owned venture funds with vintages of 2000 to 2011. Ten of them now boast positive IRRs while the remainder shows red ink, […]

Distributions to limited partners have improved recently, but many venture funds of the past decade remain well behind their breakeven point. This trend is apparent in the venture portfolio of the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System. The pension manager has 53 venture funds with vintages of 2003 to 2012. Only two have returned more cash […]

The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System continued its steady pace of venture investing in 2012 by adding funds from Mayfield Fund, GGV Capital and Pine Brook Road Partners to its venture portfolio. Last year’s pace of additions mirrors those of 2011 and 2010, when the state pension fund added three venture funds each year, according […]

Union Square Ventures is still at the head of the class in the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System’s venture portfolio, despite a slight retreat in the performance of its gangbuster 2004 fund last year. However, Technology Crossover Ventures and Sofinnova Ventures turned in mixed years. And while the money manager’s lone Austin Ventures fund advanced, […]

Last year was the first year since the dot-com bubble collapsed that venture funds collectively returned more cash to limited partners than they called. There is more work to be done. But the gains have been welcomed, especially by the 2007 venture funds in the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System private equity portfolio. The funds […]

New England is sometimes called the land of steady habits. The phrase might apply to Mass PRIM’s venture investment strategy. The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board is an active venture investor and one that often sticks with established partnerships, including a number from its home state. The money manager ramped up its venture investments […]

The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board generally has a strong venture portfolio. But several of its top funds saw a pullback in performance last year, according to a recently released portfolio report. Funds from big-name managers Spark Capital and New Enterprise Associates lost noticeable ground. Also retreating were nicely performing funds from Insight Venture […]

Several top venture funds saw a pull back in performance during the most recent reporting period, according to a CalPERS report that otherwise found gains in the pension fund’s self-directed venture portfolio. The funds include the relatively recent vintage 2009 Khosla Ventures III and Insight Venture Partners VI from 2007. Also retreating were Insight V, […]

Cleantech venture investing fell by about a quarter last year to $3.3 billion. It fell even more substantially, 61%, in the first quarter of 2013. One reason is that cleantech fund performance continues to struggle. This is clearly the case in CalPERS’ Clean Energy and Technology Fund, where funds with improving returns through September of […]

Overseas investing has been a tough road for venture firms in the past several years, as international markets have slowed. This pull back is evident in CalPERS’ EMAlternatives Investments portfolio, which targets such emerging market countries and regions as China, India, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa and Latin America. Several funds in the portfolio boast of […]