A report by the Association of Asian American Investment Managers (AAAIM) and Bella Private Markets · September 2026
Abstract
Funds managed by AAPI-owned firms consistently outperform their non-AAPI peers, yet AAPI-owned firms account for just 0.49% of total assets under management. This is the fifth consecutive study produced by AAAIM in collaboration with Bella Private Markets, and it draws on the largest dataset the series has assembled to date: 11,974 U.S.-based private markets firms managing 55,044 funds, and 2,481 mutual fund firms managing 24,888 funds.
Across every asset class studied, AAPI funds are more likely to land in the top quartile of performance, and less likely to land in the bottom quartile, than non-AAPI funds. In private markets, AAPI venture capital funds returned a capital-weighted average IRR of 15.4%, versus 9.7% for non-AAPI funds, while AAPI buyout funds averaged 19.2%, versus 13.7%. AAPI private markets funds also beat public market benchmarks by a wider margin than their non-AAPI peers, and AAPI mutual funds delivered better long-term, risk-adjusted returns, outperforming by 3.1 percentage points at the 10-year mark on a capital-weighted basis.
That underrepresentation carries a real cost. The report estimates that an investor who allocated only to non-AAPI mutual funds from Q1 2015 to Q3 2025 gave up as much as 30.4 percentage points in cumulative returns; for venture capital, the figure rises to 41.4 percentage points. Scaled across the industry, the underrepresentation of AAPI-owned firms costs private market investors over $100 billion per year in forgone returns. The report concludes with three practical actions the investment industry can take to build the senior and ownership-level AAPI pipeline.
Josh Lerner has received compensation for advising institutional investors in private equity funds, private equity groups, and governments designing policies relevant to private equity. This post is not meant to serve as an endorsement of any investment group or its services. It is not meant to provide investment advice and should be viewed as educational in nature only. All errors and omissions are our own.
