风险资本家基于十年的基金生命的基金结构和市场。实际上，几十年内只有约7％的资金清算，最近的基金持续时间数据表明，中位数基金需要超过14年才能结束。
The problem for limited partners is that we bear the costs of longer than expected VC fund lives — the stranded capital, greater illiquidity and additional management fees — but are seldom compensated for doing so.
The longer timeline to liquidation itself is not the concern. It’s easy to understand that exit markets are volatile and difficult to time, and that early-stage companies can take a long while to grow, gain traction and grow more in order to maximize their potential and value. The central issue for limited partners is that so few venture capital funds deliver the minimum 300 to 500 basis points of performance above the public markets to compensate for just ten years of expected illiquidity and fees. Hardly any generate the even greater returns needed to compensate investors for the illiquidity and fees of a capital commitment of 14 years or longer.
In the portfolio of the Kauffman Foundation, where I’m a senior fellow, 45 percent of our VC funds exceed their ten-year life. Of those, 65 percent have a duration of more than 12 years. When I give talks about investing in venture capital, I like to joke that we have funds in our portfolio that are old enough to drive and vote. We don’t yet have any old enough to drink — but we’re close.
基础并不孤单。2013年，全国风险投资协会发布了芝加哥私募股权管理公司Adams Street Partners的持续时间超过100个技术资金的分析。结果表明，在预计的十年时间框架内，7％的资金结束。VC资金扩展是新规范，大多数基金有限合伙协议（LPA）包括至少两年的一年扩展，将其基金生命增加至12年。然而，只有20％的资金能够在这两年的延长期间清算。中位时间是清算的实际上超过14年。近一半（46％）的资金需要15年或更长时间才能结束。
Source: NVCA Yearbook, 2013. Adams Street Partners data analysis of the fund life of IT/technology funds.
这种趋势对风险投资者本身几乎不令人担忧。长期资金是VC公司的收入发生器，在多个基金寿命延长期间最继续收取费用。VCS断言，这些费用小而微不足道，但同时，最大地抵制任何令人放弃它们的建议。VCS也倾向于invest very little of their own money into their own funds(the market standard is 1 percent of the fund), which allows them to minimize the impact of longer illiquidity and additional fees on their own invested capital.
For limited partners, the trend is more worrisome. It’s LPs who disproportionately bear the costs of venture capital< funds that take 14 years or longer to liquidate fully.
搁浅首都。长寿命风险资本资金产生的股票资本的数量对LPS具有重要意义。我们在Kauffman基金会的经验，详细介绍了我们2012年的报告“We Have Met the Enemy ... and He Is Us那” is that after a decade, ten of the 23 extended-life funds in our portfolio still had at least 15 percent, and up to 40 percent, of committed capital left in the portfolio.
When we aggregated the capital stuck in our long-life venture capital funds, we found that 8 percent of our private equity portfolio net asset value is stranded in funds that have extended beyond their expected ten-year life. This aggregate 8 percent of stranded NAV represents one of the top five largest positions in our portfolio, a meaningful pool of capital that is more illiquid and more costly, in terms of fees and fund expenses, than projected.
这种搁浅的资本的影响不仅限于私募股权组合。大多数投资者都有可在整个资本池中延伸的无效目标。VC投资组合中的预计Altiquity高于投影，可以泄漏，威胁到投资组合中的可选性。资本滞留在延长寿命基金中，在延长寿命基金中的预计时间不得超过其他资产课程的其他潜在更高的回报管理人员;再投资其他可能更高的回报私人投资机会;或用于重新平衡投资组合。
The amount and significance of stranded capital vary by investor. Limited partners can — and should — analyze data from their own portfolio to determine their average and median VC fund durations, then assess the aggregate amount of capital stranded in all extended-life VC funds and evaluate the impact on their portfolio’s optionality, illiquidity and fees.
正在进行的管理费用。大多数风险投资公司继续收费during fund extensions. In many cases the fees step down, but in all cases they continue to eat away at the net returns that accrue to investors.
The amount of fees, and how they are calculated, varies by fund. Some funds charge a reduced percentage fee based on either the cost basis or the current value of the remaining portfolio. Other funds maintain the fees at a higher level based on the same or a reduced percent of committed — or of contributed — capital.
虽然很容易归咎于风险投资家，用于提出收费扩展的普遍性，但它有助于提醒自己，VCS只是表现为他们所在的好资本家。他们收取市场支付的费用。在这种情况下，有限的合作伙伴继续支付更多，并且具有很小的阻力。VC资金的投资者定期同意LPA条款，使公司能够远远超过十年的费用。通过这样做，投资者在延长基金时，投资者在岩石和艰难的地方安置。LPS只有两种选择：批准收费的延期;或者不批准延期，并采取私营公司股票的分布或投资组合消防销售的收益。
实际上，它很少出现分销或火灾销售。更常见的是，有限的合作伙伴滚动并批准收费的延期，没有谈判（这令人惊讶的是共同）或批判性的投资者弥补VC公司在十年或12年之后完全放弃或大幅减少费用（这是不太常见但经常发生）。通常，VC公司将主动提出放弃或减少费用。
一种更有效的方法来处理VC基金的现实，寿命为14年或更长时间是为LPS谈判在第十年后终止管理费，作为LPA的规定。这项规定总是可以修改或修改，以考虑到基金寿命后的情况，但它将证据的负担转移到风险投资公司的责任，以证明额外的，持续的费用，它创造了投资者友好的时间 -有限的费用。
The Absence of Higher Returns to Compensate Investors.The biggest problem with venture capital funds of 14 years or longer is that investors so rarely get paid greater returns for taking on any illiquidity and fees beyond year ten. It’s already the exceptional fund that doesn’t struggle and then fail to fulfill its promise of generating a minimum venture rate of return of 300 to 500 basis points above the public markets to compensate investors for just ten years of illiquidity and fees. It’s even more uncommon to find a fund that can generate the returns needed to reward investors for any locked-up capital and fees beyond ten years.
维持过时的十年基金结构对风险投资公司有意义：它允许他们延续投资者资本将被退回的叙述和销售投票，并且在十年内将终止的性能和费用终止。当需要更长时间，持续的费用收入到风险投资公司累积。LPS的交易似乎更糟。我们仍然在非高速度投资中持续数年超过预期或预计，并且在许多情况下，继续支付额外的管理费和资金费用。我们未能获得多余的回报，以弥补我们的延长基金生命的成本。然后，我们在我们自己的投资组合中忽略了关于实际基金持续时间的数据，并继续投资于拥有预计的十年生命的风险投资资金。
根据投资资本基金的投资基金寿命为14年或更长时间，投资者对投资者进行评估和谈判投资的案件很强。投资者需要将预测从十到14多年的全部流动性转移，寻找更高的回报作为对额外的低劣和费用的补偿，并在十年之后谈判管理费的终止。是时候接受现实，即十年的长期风险投资基金结束的几十年。
Diane Mulcahy is a senior fellow at theEwing Marion Kauffman基金会and an adjunct lecturer in entrepreneurship at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts; she writes and speaks frequently about the venture capital industry. Follow her on Twitter at@dianemulcahy。