AngelList Benchmarks Indicate Early-Stage Venture Funds Show Signs of Recovery

According to a recent LinkedIn post from AngelList, the firm is highlighting its 2025 Fund Benchmarks Report, which analyzes aggregated data from early-stage venture funds on its platform. The post notes early signs of recovery in 2024-vintage fund returns relative to 2021–2023, after what it describes as three years of stagnant early-stage performance.

The LinkedIn post also points to significant dispersion in how early-stage funds operate, including differences in fundraising timelines and capital deployment pace. It further suggests that a $20M fund size appears to mark an institutional threshold, particularly in relation to audits and anchor limited partners, which may be relevant for investors assessing fund quality and risk profiles.

For investors, the benchmarks described could provide data-driven context on where the current venture cycle stands and how emerging funds are navigating the market. If the early indications of improved performance for 2024-vintage funds persist, this may support a gradual normalization of early-stage venture returns and potentially stimulate renewed LP interest in the asset class.

The emphasis on operational variance among funds underscores execution risk and the importance of manager selection, even within the same vintage year. The identified $20M institutional threshold may influence how LPs segment the market between emerging managers and more institutionalized platforms, which could in turn affect capital flows and competitive dynamics on AngelList’s own platform.

As the report is built from AngelList’s internal aggregated fund data, its visibility and perceived usefulness to LPs and GPs could enhance the company’s role as an information provider in addition to its platform function. Increased reliance on such benchmarks might deepen user engagement, potentially supporting AngelList’s positioning and monetization opportunities in the early-stage venture ecosystem over time.