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Blueprint Intelligence / Research / What deployment size and investment stage tell us
Research
The Institute’s performance study looks at average capital deployed and at investment stage. These are research comparisons, not entry-check targets or a rating of your fund.
How much capital a fund deploys is a different question from how large the fund is. This guide separates the two, using White Paper I’s performance study of 2,471 U.S. venture funds from 2000–2024. White Paper II’s 2,142-fund risk-efficiency sample is a separate study, not the source of these comparisons.
The two groups may have different resources, strategies and opportunities. The model does not isolate any one of those as the cause. Keep the definition of deployed capital consistent when comparing this finding with your own portfolio; an initial check alone is a different measure.
The paper’s calculated deployment measure averages about $17 million for emerging funds and $60 million for established funds. It is a fund-level figure from the paper’s Table 3, not the amount invested in each company, so it should not be divided by or multiplied with the portfolio counts. Emerging funds in the sample hold 28 portfolio companies on average, compared to 37 for established funds. These are descriptive averages. Source: Colibrí Institute, Why Emerging Venture Capital Managers Matter (Moncada and Salas, 2026).
The later-stage reversal belongs in the comparison. These are group-average returns, not the result a manager should expect from moving stages. Differences in resources, selection and market conditions may matter; the averages alone cannot establish the explanation.
Vintage year is a control in the analysis rather than a benchmark series reported here. The sample is U.S.-based, so it also does not supply a geography benchmark for other markets. Those gaps matter when applying the findings. This guide does not promise a future research release or fill the gaps with assumptions.
Source check recorded: September 18, 2026 (claim-scope review).
The study and supplied tables support the research statements above. The September 2026 editorial review clarified descriptive findings and their limits; it did not change the paper, rerun the data or validate a fund’s future returns.
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Perspectives by Colibrí Strategies: practical notes for GPs and the LPs who back them.
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