Fund performance: Late vintage venture portfolio generating mixed results for California investor

A portfolio of late-vintage venture funds is generating a mixed performance for the University of California.

The Column Group’s second fund from 2014 is off to a great start, according to a recent performance report. So is OrbiMed Advisor’s 2009 late-stage fourth fund.

But other funds, including several from Khosla Ventures and Canaan Partners, aren’t distinguishing themselves from the pack.

The portfolio holds 26 funds with vintages of 2007 to 2014. It favors larger funds, with two out of three larger than $500 million, and funds with an early-stage focus. Half do early-stage investing.

Most are in positive territory, and several look like breakout investments The Column Group II had an investment multiple of 4.44x as of March last year with relatively little of its cash called, the report shows. OrbiMed Private Investments IV also was doing brilliantly, with an IRR of 49.7 percent as of March 2015.

Insight Venture Partners VI held onto third place with an IRR of 20.4 percent and Bessemer Venture Partners VIII looked smart with an IRR of 20.3 percent. GGV Capital IV from 2012 also looks promising.

Other funds weren’t keeping pace. Khosla Ventures III had an IRR of 14.5 percent and Khosla Ventures Seed was behind that mark, the report shows. The secondary fund, W Capital Partners II, had an IRR of 12.1 percent.

The university holds three funds from Sequoia Capital but doesn’t release returns for them. They are the only funds in its portfolio where returns are shielded.

The accompanying table lists the 26 funds with their commitments, distributions, multiples and IRRs, where available.