Do VC Lab Funds Make Money? Early Outcomes So Far

VC Lab funds already show early signals, including 390+ portfolio up rounds and managers in the Decile family who've collectively invested in more than a dozen unicorns. Those signals are leading indicators, and realized cash returns from VC Lab funds will take much of a ten-year fund life to show up.

Fund returns in venture usually take ten years or more to show up as DPI, and most VC Lab funds are still early in that life. Until then, the useful evidence is follow-on rounds, reporting and how each firm is run.

What are VC Lab funds' portfolio outcomes so far?

The published outcome figures are 390+ portfolio up rounds and a group of managers who've collectively invested in more than a dozen unicorns. There's no published fund-level return figure, like an aggregate TVPI or DPI, across VC Lab funds.

Decile Group reports these figures publicly as of September 2026:

• Firms launched: more than 1,000 VC firms through VC Lab since 2020.
• Up rounds: 390+ across those firms' portfolio companies.
• Unicorns: managers in the Decile family have invested in more than a dozen.
• Combined target AUM: $6.2B, the total managers set out to raise when they launched.
• LP commitments powered: $1.5B, per decilegroup.com.

None of these numbers is a return, so each one needs reading on its own terms.

What does 390+ up rounds mean?

An up round is when a portfolio company raises new money at a higher valuation than its previous round. It's a leading indicator, a sign that other investors are willing to pay more for the company, and it usually lets a fund mark that position up.

But an up round doesn't put cash in an LP's account. A company can raise three up rounds and still fail. That's why our own benchmarks guide calls the 390+ figure "a leading indicator rather than a return," and that's the right way to read it.

Also keep the timeline in mind. Most of these portfolios are only a few years old, and up rounds keep compounding as companies mature.

What does "more than a dozen unicorns" mean?

It means managers in the Decile network have, between them, invested in more than 12 companies valued at $1B or more. That line came from Adeo Ressi's talk at the January 2026 Decile Family Reunion, as reported in our offsite recap.

Read it carefully. It's a count of managers' investments, and some of those managers were active angels long before they joined VC Lab. So some of those unicorn positions may have been angel checks or earlier fund positions rather than investments made by the fund they launched through VC Lab.

We'd like to name these companies. We won't until each manager has confirmed the position and agreed to be cited.

Is $6.2B the amount VC Lab funds have raised?

No. $6.2B is combined target AUM, the total that managers set out to raise when they launched, so it describes intentions rather than money in the bank.

The $1.5B figure on decilegroup.com is "LP commitments powered," which is closer to money committed by LPs. Commitments still aren't the same as capital called or invested, and none of these numbers tells you about returns.

Why doesn't VC Lab publish TVPI or DPI for its funds?

Mostly because the funds are too young for those numbers to mean much, and because each fund's performance belongs to its manager and LPs. An aggregate TVPI across a thousand young funds would be built almost entirely on unrealized marks.

How old are VC Lab funds?

VC Lab started in early 2020, so the oldest funds are about six years old, and many of the more than 1,000 firms launched far more recently. Decile's 2026 goal alone was to launch 250 funds. A typical venture fund runs ten years or more, and cash returns tend to show up late.

Our TVPI explainer walks through a worked $10MM fund where DPI is still zero in year three and only reaches 0.25x in year five. That's normal. It's called the J-curve, and a fund at the bottom of the curve is right on schedule.

Why is TVPI misleading for a young fund?

TVPI adds cash returned (DPI) to the current estimated value of what's left (RVPI). In the first few years, almost all of the value sits in RVPI, which is a valuation the manager sets. Aggregating those marks across hundreds of managers would give you a big, official-looking number that's mostly unverified. We'd rather not publish that.

Who owns VC Lab fund performance data?

In a traditional VC Lab fund, the manager runs their own GP entity, and the fund's results are reported to that fund's LPs. Decile Group isn't the GP for those funds, so it isn't Decile's number to publish.

Start Fund is set up differently. There, Decile Group is the GP and the manager is the Investment Lead, and the track record belongs to the Investment Lead and goes with them.

Do any VC Lab funds have exits yet?

We haven't published an exit count across VC Lab funds.

What we can say is that early-stage exits take time. VC Lab managers often invest at pre-seed or seed, where a company can take ten years or more to reach an acquisition or IPO. A fund that launched in 2022 is unlikely to have much DPI in 2026, however good its picks are.

Can I check VC Lab funds in industry databases or other databases?

Mostly no, and that's a real limitation for an analyst. The big industry datasets largely miss funds from new managers, and most first funds never show up in them.

For context, the industry fundraising data counted 103 first-time US funds raising $5.2B in 2024. VC Lab alone has launched more than 1,000 firms since 2020, which works out to roughly 150 a year. That's not a like-for-like comparison, since 56% of VC Lab managers are outside the US, but it gives you a sense of how much of this market never reaches the standard reports.

It's also why our first fund fundraising statistics are built from our own data. So if you're doing diligence on a specific VC Lab fund, you'll usually need the manager's own reporting, not a database pull.

How do you judge a VC fund that's too young to have returns?

You look at the evidence that comes before returns. That means follow-on rounds, who co-invested, how the manager reports, and whether their process and their back office hold up when you push on them.

These are the questions we'd ask any VC Lab manager, and the ones any LP should ask a new manager.

• Follow-on rounds: how many portfolio companies have raised a priced follow-on round led by an outside investor, and who led it?
• Marks: what are your TVPI, DPI and RVPI, and what valuation policy produced the marks?
• Concentration: which two or three positions carry most of your unrealized value?
• Write-offs: how many companies have you written off so far?
• Prior record: what did your angel or prior fund track record look like before this fund, and can you show it?
• Reporting: how often do you report to LPs, and can I see a recent quarterly update?
• Operations: who runs your accounting, compliance and legal operations, when did K-1s go out last year, and are your filings current?

A manager who answers those cleanly, including the weak spots, is telling you more than any aggregate figure could. Our piece on how to fix Fund I before you raise Fund II covers what a typical first fund looks like at this stage, which is usually a few companies doing well, a few struggling, and no exits yet.

The last two questions matter more than they look. Decile's view, from working with new firms every day, is that your operations are your track record. A new firm has no distributions to show yet, so experienced LPs judge what they can see, which is the reporting, the ethics and the back office.

That's a view rather than a data finding, and it matches how diligence tends to go in practice. Every due diligence questionnaire asks about legal, administration and compliance, and when a manager goes out to raise the next fund, professional LPs call the existing LPs and ask how the firm was run.

What does the data say about which VC Lab funds do well?

We can show what's associated with funds getting raised and closed, which is a different question from returns. From our emerging manager performance data, drawn from 1,000+ PACTs, 1,000+ LPAs and 900+ funds, managers of funds that reached a close averaged 6 to 10 prior angel investments, compared with 3 to 5 for managers whose funds hadn't closed yet.

And the market has moved toward specialists. Generalists fell from 22% of new funds in 2020 to 5% in Q1 2026, per our generalist vs specialist analysis. It's too early to say from realized returns whether those specialists will outperform.

These are associations. They don't tell you that angel experience or a specialty produces a closed fund, and they say nothing about returns.

The data doesn't measure how the firm is run, and Decile thinks that belongs next to it. In Decile's experience, managers who get to a second fund tend to report on time, deliver tax documents early and keep their filings current. We don't have a published dataset behind that, so treat it as Decile's opinion from working with many funds.

LPs who come back for a second fund rarely do it on performance alone, because it's too early for that. They come back because you treated them well, reported on time and kept investing in things they believe in, so look after the LPs you already have.

It also helps to know how LPs label you. With one fund you're a new manager. With a second you're an emerging manager. The institutions that decide by committee are a big jump from there. It usually takes until Fund III, with two funds of track record and some real distributions, before they have enough to take you through their process, and many of them can't back a new manager at all under their own rules.

How does Decile Group make money if funds haven't returned cash yet?

VC Lab is free training. Decile Group earns its revenue when a manager chooses its infrastructure to launch and run a firm, such as Start Fund or Decile Partners, and we explain the model in How VC Lab Stays Free. Fund outcomes are a separate question, so diligence them manager by manager.

So, do VC Lab funds make money?

It's too early to answer from realized cash returns, because most VC Lab funds haven't been around long enough to exit companies, and results vary by manager. The early signals, like up rounds, are leading indicators. Ask each manager for their DPI and reporting today, look hard at how they run the firm, and judge the portfolio as it compounds over a full fund life.

FAQ

Are VC Lab funds profitable?

Many are still early in a fund life of ten years or more, so value today is mostly unrealized marks and follow-on progress rather than cash returned. Individual funds vary widely. Ask a specific manager for their DPI, valuation policy and how the firm is run.

Have VC Lab managers backed any unicorns?

Yes. Decile Group says managers in its network have collectively invested in more than a dozen unicorns. Some of those positions may predate the manager's VC Lab fund, so ask each manager how and when they got in.

Can I see the returns of VC Lab funds?

There's no public aggregate return figure. Each fund reports its own results to its own LPs, and most funds are private. If you're an LP considering a specific fund, the manager should share TVPI, DPI, RVPI and their valuation policy during diligence.

Why aren't VC Lab funds in industry databases?

The big venture datasets largely miss funds from new managers, and most first funds never appear in them. You'll usually need the manager's own data or our published research instead.

What is a good DPI for a three-year-old venture fund?

Usually close to zero, and that's fine. Early-stage funds rarely distribute cash in their first few years, because companies take a long time to exit. A young fund showing high DPI often sold positions early, so ask why.

How do LPs judge a new VC firm that has no returns yet?

They look at what's visible. That's follow-on rounds and co-investors on the portfolio side, and reporting, compliance and back office on the firm side. Decile's view is that a new firm's operations are its track record until distributions arrive.

Is a VC Lab fund a safe investment?

No venture fund is safe. Early-stage venture is high-risk and illiquid, most portfolio companies fail, and a fund's returns usually depend on a few winners. Going through VC Lab tells you a manager completed a demanding program, and it says nothing about how their fund will perform.

For more, read our case studies, browse our guides for step-by-step help on launching and running a fund, and follow program updates in our news.

This article is for educational purposes only and isn't investment advice.

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