Coatue’s Newer Growth Funds Return More Than 45% Annually, Internal Data Show

The private tech funds of Coatue Management, the New York hedge fund that’s become one of Silicon Valley’s biggest investors, have started to outpace the returns of rival VC firms in recent years as the size of those funds swelled, according to internal data reviewed by The Information.

Coatue’s third venture growth fund, which it raised in 2017 to invest primarily in more-mature startups, posted a net internal rate of return of 47% as of last December, according to a May memo for prospective investors in its multibillion-dollar, fifth growth fund. That puts the 2017 fund, which includes stakes in big names such as TikTok owner ByteDance and food-delivery firm DoorDash, in the top quartile of venture funds raised in the same year, according to investment adviser Cambridge Associates. By contrast, the firm’s first two growth funds, raised in 2013 and 2015, posted returns that were multiple percentage points below the top quartile of fund performers, as the chart below shows.