What Are IRR, TVPI, DPI, and RVPI?

These four metrics show up in almost every GP quarterly report, and they're the backbone of how LPs track fund performance. Each one answers a slightly different question.

IRR (Internal Rate of Return) The annualized return on invested capital, accounting for the timing of every cash flow in and out of the fund. Because private fund cash flows are irregular (capital calls at unpredictable intervals, distributions whenever the GP realizes value), IRR is the standard way to compare funds with very different drawdown and return schedules.

TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In) The ratio of total value created (distributions already received plus current NAV) to capital actually paid in. A TVPI of 1.8x means the fund has generated 1.8 times what the LP has contributed so far, whether realized or still on paper.

DPI (Distributions to Paid-In) The realized portion of TVPI. This is cash actually returned to the LP, divided by capital paid in. DPI tells you how much of the fund's paper gains have actually converted into cash in hand.

RVPI (Residual Value to Paid-In) The unrealized portion of TVPI. Current NAV divided by capital paid in. TVPI is always DPI plus RVPI.

Why LPs track all four together

No single metric tells the full story. A fund can show a strong TVPI that's almost entirely RVPI (paper gains, nothing distributed yet), which is a very different risk profile than a fund with the same TVPI but high DPI. Tracking all four side by side, across every GP relationship and vintage year, is how an investment committee actually understands portfolio performance rather than just fund-by-fund headlines.

The catch is that GPs don't report these consistently. Definitions of paid-in capital, treatment of recycled capital, and NAV timing all vary by manager. Getting a portfolio-wide view that's actually comparable requires normalizing the underlying data first.

That normalization and rollup work is part of what we do in LP Reporting & Data Enrichment. See how it works →