Meketa Capital cites Upwelling research on performance of private equity funds over their lifecycle in their recently published report on Evergreen Funds and Their Potential Misuse of Secondaries. 

“According to research performed by Upwelling Capital Group, originally completed in 2019 with updated data added in 2021 and 2025, the sharpest growth in fund value, as measured by TVPI (Total Value to Paid In) occurs in the early years of the fund (Years 1-6), before it starts to flatten out. This is true of the median funds and top quartile funds. In fact, for both of these categories, TVPI growth in the first five years is more than double the rate of growth over the next five years. Examining all US buyout funds from vintage years 1998 through 2024, the max TVPI for the median fund occurred in Year 9 and for the top quartile funds occurred in Year 10.”