Here are the top 10 best performing venture funds that launched at the turn of the decade, which posted returns as high as 50%

• PitchBook put together a list for Business Insider of the best-performing venture-capital funds that were launched from 2010 to 2012.
• Of the funds that were launched in that period, the median average annual return was at least 11% through the first quarter of last year.
• But the very best funds from that period have returned an average of more than 50%.
• Union Square Ventures, Emergence Capital, and Menlo Ventures were among those with standout funds.
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Fred Wilson and his team at Union Square Ventures, it turns out, have a knack for picking winners.

Union Square's Opportunity Fund, which closed and started making investments in 2010, went on to back Cloudflare, MongoDB, Etsy, and Tumblr, according to PitchBook. All four had successful exits — the first three went public, while Tumblr was acquired by Yahoo for $1.1 billion. Thanks to that record, the fund has been among the best-performing venture investment pools of its era, according to a list put together by PitchBook for Business Insider.

From 2010 to 2012, venture firms launched 82 new funds, according to PitchBook's tallies. Enough time has passed since those funds were launched to get a good sense of the wisdom of their investments. Many have already seen plenty of exits among their portfolio companies in the form of public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, or failures. And most have long-ago invested all the capital they had available.

PitchBook declined to disclose the performance of individual funds. But the aggregated data it did share gives a sense of just how widely the performance of funds from the 2010 to 2012 era have varied — and the huge gulf between the best and worst funds. 

The median fund from that era has posted an average annual return of at least 11% through the first quarter of last year — that last period for which data is available — PitchBook calculated. The very best from that time period — those that are in the top 10% of their size class for the year they launched — have posted average returns of more than 50% during that same period. Meanwhile, the worst, those in the bottom 10% for their size and launch year, have lost more than 6% a year.

Union Square wasn't the only firm with a standout fund during that 2010 to 2012 era. One of Emergence Capital's funds from that time period was also winner, thanks in part to Zoom, which had blockbuster IPO last year. Meanwhile, one of Menlo Ventures' funds rode Uber and Roku to success.

While venture capital used to be a distinctly Silicon Valley phenomenon, that's no longer the case. Of the 10 best performing funds from 2010 to 2012, only three were from firms that are based in California. New York firms, meanwhile, placed four funds in the top 10.

Here, according to PitchBook, are the top 10 best performing venture funds that were launched between 2010 and 2012:

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10. Lightspeed Venture Partners

Rank: 10
Fund: Lightspeed Venture Partners IX
Location: California
Closing date: 2012
Vintage year: 2012
Fund size: $675 million
Notable investments: Snap, Zscaler, Ripple, Oyo

Sources: PitchBook, Lightspeed Venture Partners

9. Emergence Capital Partners

Rank: 9
Fund: Emergence Capital Partners Fund III
Location: California
Closing date: 2012
Vintage year: 2012
Fund size: $255 million
Notable investments: Zoom, Salesloft, Crunchbase, Chorus, Gusto, Dronedeploy, Steelbrick

Sources: PitchBook, Emergence Capital

8. Spark Capital

Rank: 8
Fund: Spark Capital III
Location: Massachusetts
Closing date: 2010
Vintage year: 2010
Fund size: $360 million
Notable investments: Oculus, Plaid, GetYourGuide, Wayfair, and FourSquare

Sources: PitchBook, Spark Capital

7. IA Ventures (Fund II)

Rank: 7
Fund: IA Venture Strategies Fund II
Location: New York
Closing date: 2012
Vintage year: 2012
Fund size: $105 million
Notable investments: Transferwise, Digital Ocean, Komodo Health, DataRobot

Source: PitchBook, IA Ventures

6. OrbiMed

Rank: 6
Fund: OrbiMed Private Investments IV
Location: New York
Closing date: 2010
Vintage year: 2010
Fund size: $550 million
Notable investments: Affirmed Therapeutics, Argenx, Acceleron Pharma

Source: PitchBook

5. Menlo Ventures

Rank: 5
Fund: Menlo Ventures XI
Location: California
Closing date: 2010
Vintage year: 2010
Fund size: $403 million
Notable investments: Uber, Rover, Warby Parker, Poshmark, Betterment, Machine Zone, Dropcam, Check

Sources: PitchBook, Menlo Ventures

4. Santé Ventures

Rank: 4
Fund: Santé Health Ventures II
Location: Texas
Closing date: 2014
Vintage year: 2011
Fund size: $139 million
Notable investments: AbVitro, Claret Medical, Farapulse, Millipede Medical

Sources: PitchBook, Santé Ventures

3. Third Rock Ventures

Rank: 3
Fund: Third Rock Ventures II
Location: Massachusetts
Closing date: 2010
Vintage year: 2010
Fund size: $427 million
Notable investments: Blueprint Medicines, Global Blood Therapeutics, Sage Therapeutics, and MyoKardia

Source: PitchBook, Third Rock Ventures

2. IA Ventures (Fund I)

Rank: 2
Fund: IA Ventures Fund I
Location: New York
Closing date: 2010
Vintage year: 2010
Fund size: $50 million
Notable investments: The Trade Desk, Datadog, Recorded Future

Source: PitchBook, IA Ventures

1. Union Square Ventures

Rank: 1
Fund: Union Square Ventures Opportunity Fund
Location: New York
Closing date: 2010
Vintage year: 2010
Fund size: $135 million
Notable investments: Cloudflare, MongoDB, Etsy, Tumblr

Source: PitchBook

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