What are venture focused Limited Partners are thinking today?

Key claims

• After public markets fell nearly 40% in March 2020, most expected the capital faucet for venture funds to run dry for the rest of the year. A survey of nearly 100 LPs, 44% of them family offices, suggested otherwise.
• Institutional capital is available to only 5–10% of emerging managers, yet only 10% of institutional LPs said they would definitely not back a new manager without a site visit.
• The surveyed LPs held about 10% of assets in venture, and none worried about defaulting on a capital call, though some were urging GPs to slow deployment.
• Many LPs were more excited to allocate than before COVID-19, citing lower valuations, better discipline and governance, and an accelerated innovation curve.

Notable quotes

Kyle’s filing: What are venture focused Limited Partners are thinking today? by Samir Kaji (written in June 2020) #Fundraising

• However, when the US public markets were down nearly 40% in March, most had assumed that the capital faucet for venture funds and companies would drip dry for the remainder of 2020.
• To understand what Limited Partners are thinking today, we decided to run a short survey with nearly 100 LP’s to understand their current view on allocating to venture funds.
• 44% of the respondents were Family Offices, a function of our focus on building relationships with the type of Limited Partners that have historically been most active in emerging funds.
• While it remains true that institutional capital is available for only 5–10% of emerging managers, only 10% of institutional LPs definitively conveyed they would not allocate to a new name w/o a site visit (32% said they were not sure).
• Note that for the LPs we surveyed, ~10% of total assets were held in venture.
• None of the LPs remarked they had any concern about defaulting on a capital call in 2020 (that said, we have spoken to LPs who have strongly urged GPs to slow deployment; this isn’t surprising as fast deployment and short cycles between funds were a point of contention pre-COVID-19 and a noted pain point in our survey.
• Anecdotally, many LPs I spoke to were more excited about allocating today vs. pre-COVID-19; these LPs cited lower valuations, better investment discipline by managers, stronger corporate governance by companies, and a belief that the pandemic dramatically has accelerated the trajectory of the innovation curve.

  Kyle: Only lasted for a few months before excess really got going but this current correction (April 2022) is more likely to force discipline

The First Republic survey PDF this post links to now returns a 404, after First Republic became part of JPMorgan Chase. [STALE], checked 2026-09-16.

How it connects

• Samir Kaji
• Family Office
• Fundraising