Glossary · Fund life

What is DPI?

DPI, distributions to paid-in capital, divides the cash a fund has returned to investors by the cash they paid in. A DPI of 1.0x means they have their money back.

In practice

DPI appears in quarterly LP reports and in fund performance tables, usually next to RVPI and TVPI. Distributions are typically counted net of fees and carried interest, so it reflects what investors actually received. Because it ignores unrealized value, it is often near zero in a young fund and is sometimes confused with MOIC, which includes unrealized value.

An example

Round numbers, not a real fund

Say investors paid in $100 million and have received $60 million back. DPI is 0.6. Whatever value remains in the fund is not counted in it.

Why it matters

It is the return investors can spend, which is why it carries more weight as a fund ages.

A definition, not advice; where usage varies the entry says so. Something wrong? Tell the desk.

Related terms

TVPITVPI, total value to paid-in capital, adds the cash a fund has already returned to the value it still holds, then divides by the money investors paid in.
RVPIRVPI, residual value to paid-in capital, divides the value of what a fund still holds by the money investors paid in. It is the unrealized part of the return.
MOICMOIC, multiple on invested capital, is the total value an investment has returned or still holds, divided by the money put into it. It ignores how long that took.
IRRIRR, internal rate of return, is the yearly return that accounts for when money goes into and comes out of a fund, so earlier payouts raise it.
J-curveThe J-curve is the usual pattern where a fund’s reported returns dip below zero in its early years, because of fees and costs before investments mature, and then climb.

The terms, in the news each morning.

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