MOIC

TL;DR

Multiple on Invested Capital — total value (realized + unrealized) divided by total capital invested, a simple time-insensitive return metric.

MOIC measures how many times an investor's original capital the investment is worth today. A 3.0x MOIC means the investment is worth three times what was put in. The metric is simple, intuitive, and time-blind — it doesn't reward speed.

LPs commonly use MOIC alongside IRR and DPI. MOIC tells you how much the fund made; IRR tells you how fast; DPI tells you how much has actually come back in cash.

Formula

MOIC = (Realized Value + Unrealized Value) ÷ Invested Capital

• Realized Value — Cash already returned to investors (distributions)
• Unrealized Value — Estimated current value of remaining holdings
• Invested Capital — Total dollars invested across all positions

Worked example

A fund invested $10M in Company X and the position is now worth $35M (mix of distributed and held). MOIC = $35M ÷ $10M = 3.5×. Across the whole fund, the MOIC averages out to 2.7×.

Common pitfalls

• Reporting MOIC without distinguishing realized from unrealized value.
• Comparing MOIC across funds with very different durations.
• Treating high MOIC as a sufficient signal without checking IRR.

When this shows up in a pitch deck

MOIC shows up in fund LP updates and in retrospective case studies founders cite about prior investors.

See MOIC in context

MOIC shows up most often in these scoring rubrics and investor profiles — jump straight to who cares about it and how to pitch them.

In VC frameworks

• Family Office — pitch deck framework

For investor types

• Family Office — Risk & Returns

Related terms

• TVPI — Total Value to Paid-In capital — the sum of distributions and remaining NAV divided by capital paid in, used by VC LPs.
• DPI — Distributions to Paid-In capital — the cash a fund has returned to LPs divided by total capital called, the realized portion of TVPI.
• RVPI — Residual Value to Paid-In capital — the unrealized portion of fund NAV divided by capital called, the paper portion of TVPI.
• IRR — Internal Rate of Return — the annualized return that makes the net present value of all fund cash flows equal to zero.
• J-Curve — The pattern of early-fund losses followed by later gains as investments mature, which produces a J-shaped cumulative return chart for VC funds.

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