Fund performance: Texas LP turns bullish on venture

Few LPs are as bullish on venture as the Texas County and District Retirement System.

The money manager added nine vintage 2014 funds to its portfolio after it stepped up investing in 2013, according to a recent report on its holdings. That lifted 2014 commitments to $237 million from $130 million in 2013.

New to its holdings are funds from Technology Crossover Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, DFJ and OpenView Venture Partners.

Its recent vintage portfolio favors mid-tier funds, those between $250 million to $750 million in size. More than half of its vintage 2012 to 2014 funds are in this tier. About a quarter qualify as mega scale: $1 billion or more.

The portfolio is too young to draw conclusions on its performance. Many of the funds have just begun drawing down capital, according to the report updating performance to September 2014. So investment multiples in many cases are below 1.

Yet several funds stand out. Institutional Venture Partners XIV from 2013 had an IRR of 61.2 percent as of September, a fast start for the late-stage fund. New Enterprise Associates 14 from 2012 had an IRR of 14.91 percent and Khosla Ventures Seed B had an IRR of 10.64 percent as of September, the report shows.

Another fund with solid footing is Summit Partners Growth Equity Fund VIII. Its IRR was 13.66 percent.

The portfolio will bear closing watching in the years to come.

The 18 funds are listed in the accompanying table along with commitment levels, distributions, investment multiples and IRRs, where available.