Total Value to Paid-In (TVPI)

TVPI breaks cleanly into two parts. DPI (Distributions to Paid-In) is the realized cash already returned per dollar paid in. RVPI (Residual Value to Paid-In) is the unrealized, still-held fair value per dollar paid in. TVPI = DPI + RVPI. Early in a fund's life TVPI is almost entirely RVPI (paper); by harvest it converts to DPI (cash) as investments are sold. Two funds can report identical 1.8x TVPI but very different quality — one at 1.6x DPI / 0.2x RVPI (mostly realized) is far more trustworthy than one at 0.3x DPI / 1.5x RVPI (mostly paper).

TVPI is a money multiple: it tells you how many times your money the fund returned, but says nothing about how long it took. IRR is the annualized, time-weighted return, but it can be flattered by early distributions, fund-level credit lines (subscription facilities), and reinvestment assumptions. The two are complementary and are always read together: a 2.5x TVPI over 4 years is excellent; the same 2.5x over 12 years is mediocre. A high IRR with a low TVPI may mean the fund just returned a little money quickly. Sophisticated LPs never look at one without the other.

TVPI is quoted gross (before fund fees and carry) or net (after management fees, expenses, and carried interest). Gross measures the GP's raw investment skill; net measures what LPs actually keep. The gap between gross and net TVPI reflects the fund's fee load — typically the '2 and 20' drag. When comparing funds, always confirm whether a quoted TVPI is gross or net; comparing one GP's gross figure to another's net is a common and misleading error.