TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In Capital)
A fund performance metric combining realized distributions and the current estimated value of unrealized holdings.
TVPI measures a fund's total value — both cash already distributed to LPs and the current mark-to-market value of remaining unrealized positions — relative to the capital LPs have paid in. It's essentially DPI plus RVPI combined into one number.
TVPI is useful for tracking fund progress mid-life, but it's inherently softer than DPI because unrealized valuations (based on the last priced round, or GP marks) can be optimistic and haven't been tested by an actual sale. A high TVPI driven mostly by unrealized markups on a handful of paper unicorns is a materially different (and riskier) situation than the same TVPI backed mostly by realized DPI.
TVPI = (cumulative distributions + residual value of unrealized holdings) / total paid-in capitalLPs have paid in $40M. The fund has distributed $10M in cash so far (DPI = 0.25x) and holds unrealized positions currently marked at $50M. TVPI = ($10M + $50M) / $40M = 1.5x, even though realized DPI is still low.
Always look at TVPI alongside DPI and the fund's vintage year — a young fund with high TVPI and near-zero DPI simply hasn't had exits yet, which is normal, but a mature fund with the same gap suggests the paper markups may not be converting to real returns.
What's the difference between TVPI and DPI?
DPI counts only cash actually distributed to investors; TVPI adds the current estimated value of unsold, unrealized positions on top of that, making it a paper-inclusive measure rather than a purely realized one.
Related terms
Run the numbers yourself: dilution, SAFE conversion, and fund-returner calculators.