A multiple measure that is used in assessing the performance of an investment or a fund (a private equity fund). It is usually computed by dividing the amount of returns from the investment/ fund by the amount of money invested (amount of investment). In other words, it is a ratio of proceeds/ returns over investment. A multiple of 2 indicates that the investment doubles the investor’s money. The main types of return multiple are distributed value to paid-in ratio (DVPI), total value to paid-in ratio) (TVPI), and residual value to paid-in ratio (RVPI).

For example, the TVPI is a return multiple that relates the current value of remaining holdings within a private equity fund plus the total value of all distributions to date to the total amount of capital received by the fund to date. In this sense, it results from adding the distributed value to paid-in ratio (DVPI) to the residual value to paid-in ratio (RVPI). TVPI provides a quite reasonable measure of investment performance towards the end of a fund’s life. This ratio usually reflects the minimum level of return that investors would expect from their investments in a fund.