Distributions to paid-in (DPI).

In plain English

DPI compares the total cash a fund has sent back to its limited partners against the total cash those partners have contributed. It is deliberately blind to unrealized value, so a company still held in the portfolio at a high estimated price adds nothing to DPI until it is sold. A DPI of 1.0 means investors have gotten their money back, nothing more and nothing less. Early in a fund's life DPI is usually near zero, because exits take years. Because it only counts completed transfers, it is the hardest of the private fund measures to dress up.

01Why it matters

Paper gains cannot pay a pension check or a tuition bill, and DPI is the number that tells you how much of a fund's reported success has turned into actual money.

02The math, step by step

Say limited partners have paid in $50,000,000 and received $35,000,000 in distributions. DPI is $35,000,000 divided by $50,000,000, which is 0.70. Investors are still $15,000,000 short of getting their contributions back, regardless of what the remaining holdings are valued at.

Illustrative example. The amounts here are hypothetical, chosen to show how the math works, not real quoted rates or figures.

03What this is NOT

04Receipts

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