Fund performance: OrbiMed, Canaan, DCM head the SFERS early-decade venture portfolio

Funds from OrbiMed Advisors, Canaan Partners and DCM Ventures head an early-decade portfolio of venture funds at the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System.

The portfolio is made up of 2011 to 2013 vintages with a focus on mid-tier and larger funds and a mix of early stage and multi-stage investment strategies.

A third of the funds are between $400 million and $750 million in size, and about a quarter are $1 billion or more. An additional three are between $300 million and $400 million.

Nearly half of the funds have a balanced, generalist or multi-stage approach to investing and about a quarter do early stage deals. The portfolio holds two funds of funds managed by Weathergage Venture Capital and Knightsbridge Advisors.

Overall, results were solid as of December 2016, according to a public report. Three out of five funds had investment multiples of 1.4x or greater and only one fund was below water. However a number of the funds lost ground during 2016, the report shows.

The leader of the bunch was OrbiMed Private Investments V from 2013 with an investment multiple of 2.0x as of December, the report shows. Distributions were strong for a fund of its age.

In second place was Canaan IX from 2012 with a multiple of 1.8x. A close third was the 2013 DCM Ventures China Fund with a multiple of 1.7x, the report shows.

The portfolio has well performing funds from Weathergage, IVP, New Enterprise Associates and Sofinnova Ventures.

All 15 funds are included in the attached spreadsheet with multiples, distributions and commitments.