Glossary › Vintage
Vintage is the year in which a fund is launched and starts investing.
For closed-ended funds the year of entry shapes returns strongly: anyone investing in a phase of high valuations has a harder time than a fund that buys cheaply after a downturn. That is why private equity funds are usually compared within their vintage. With evergreen funds the vintage blurs because new money is invested continuously; the launch year still matters.
A young fund has not yet been through a period of stress. How it behaves when many investors want to leave at once is unknown – redemptions, gate and liquidity buffer have never been tested. Early figures may also be shaped by start-up costs, a small portfolio or write-ups of purchased secondaries. A short track record is no reason to rule a fund out, but it should count in the weighting.
Of the 139 active funds, 102 were launched in 2024 or later, 53 in 2025 alone. Only 13 are older than 2022. For most funds there is therefore no experience yet of a period of stress.
The three oldest vintages · as at 16 Oct 2026
the evergreen performance chapter · all terms in the glossary