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.

Example

A fund at 0.4x DPI and 2.5x TVPI has returned forty percent of the money and is asserting the rest.

Important

Most of an immature fund's TVPI is the manager's own valuation of assets nobody has bought. Split it into cash returned and value asserted before reading it as a result.

Related terms

  • DPI (distributions to paid-in) — A fund multiple counting only money actually paid back to investors, divided by the capital they paid in.
  • MOIC (multiple on invested capital) — Total value divided by the money put in - 300,000 back on 100,000 is 3.00x.
  • Unrealised gain — The difference between what an asset is currently marked at and its cost basis, where no sale has taken place.

Lessons that explain it

  • 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)
  • 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)

All 578 terms in the Investing glossary