DPI (distributions to paid-in)

A fund multiple counting only money actually paid back to investors, divided by the capital they paid in.

Example

A fund that has returned 400,000 against 1,000,000 called is at 0.4x DPI, whatever it says its holdings are worth.

This is the half of a fund's multiple that has been tested by a buyer. The gap between DPI and TVPI is the part that is still an opinion.

TVPI (total value to paid-in) — A fund multiple counting cash already distributed plus the current value of everything still held, divided by the capital investors have paid in.
Realised gain — The difference between what an asset actually sold for and its cost basis - a completed exchange that nothing afterwards can change.
J-curve — The shape a private fund's reported return typically traces: negative early, as fees are charged before anything is sold, then rising as holdings are realised.

A multiple without time and cash tells you half the story — Portfolio and fund returns are described with TVPI, DPI and IRR. Each answers a different question: total value, cash actually returned, and return per year. Reading them together avoids common misinterpretations. (11 min)
Appraising one fund: where returns came from, and how often deals lost money — A buyout track record is judged by its dispersion, its loss rate and the source of its gains, not by the average multiple. (13 min)
MOIC: the multiple, and why it ignores time on purpose — The multiple answers one question exactly - how many times your money came back - and refuses to answer any other. Its blindness to time is a feature and a trap. (10 min)
Realised and unrealised: a mark is not money — An unrealised gain is somebody's opinion of what an asset would fetch. A realised one is what it did fetch. The distance between them is where a great many returns go to die. (10 min)
A fund's value is mostly an opinion until something is sold — Venture funds report a net asset value built on the GP's own marks. Only distributions are cash, which is why DPI and TVPI tell very different stories. (11 min)
Appraising one fund: the manager, the finished track record and the fit — Evaluating a venture fund is mostly evaluating a team and whether their past results came from something repeatable. (14 min)