October 2, 2026 · 7 min read
What Is MOIC (Multiple on Invested Capital)? How It Works and Examples
How many times an investment has returned the money put into it, how to read the number, and why the time it took matters too.
- Fund metrics
- Returns
- Private equity
What is MOIC? Multiple on invested capital (MOIC) is what one investment is worth, divided by the money put into it. The worth counts cash already received plus the current value of what is still held. A MOIC of 2.5x means every dollar invested is now worth two and a half. It shows how much an investment made. It does not show how fast.
Two conditions change how to read it. First, a MOIC is usually gross. That means it comes before the fees and carry, the manager’s share of profit, charged by the fund or SPV that made the investment. An SPV is a company set up to hold one deal. What reaches you is lower. Second, part of a MOIC may be a valuation, an estimate with no sale behind it. For a pre-IPO position, an unrealized MOIC stays a figure on paper until the company lists or is sold.
01.01.2026
Funds starting on or after this date are expected to report MOIC before fees on ILPA’s standard template
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MOIC before fees is reported for sold holdings, unsold holdings and the total portfolio
03.31.2027
First reports on that template are due after this date, four full fiscal quarters after a fund starts
What Is MOIC and How Is It Calculated?
The MOIC formula has one line: MOIC = (realized value + unrealized value) ÷ invested capital. Realized value is the cash, or listed shares, the investment has already returned. That covers sale proceeds, dividends and interest. Unrealized value is the current fair value of what is still held, meaning its estimated market worth. Invested capital is what was paid for the investment, including follow-on rounds, later purchases in the same company.
- Realized MOIC
- Cash returned ÷ invested capital. It counts only what has actually come back.
- Unrealized MOIC
- Current fair value of what is held ÷ the capital still in it. It is a valuation, and a sale may fetch a different price.
- Total MOIC
- Both, over all the capital invested. This is the figure usually quoted.
A MOIC below 1.0x means the investment is worth less than it cost. Exactly 1.0x means the money is back and no more. ILPA, the Institutional Limited Partners Association, is a trade body for fund investors. Its standard template asks managers to report gross MOIC for the realized portfolio, the unrealized portfolio and the total. The template pointedly leaves “realized” undefined. So check the manager’s own definition, especially for a position that has listed but cannot be sold yet under a lock-up (ILPA, 2025).
What Is MOIC in Private Equity and Venture Capital?
What is MOIC in finance generally? It is a plain ratio, used anywhere money goes in once and comes back later. In private equity (PE), it has a narrower job. It is the multiple a manager reports on each portfolio company, based on the cash flows between the fund and its investments. The fund-level multiple is a different number with a different name, TVPI. It is measured on the cash flows between the fund and its investors, after fees.
What is MOIC in PE, then, for a reader of a manager’s deck? Usually it is a gross figure per deal: what that company returned, or is valued at, against what the fund paid. In a buyout, where a fund buys control of a company, debt is part of how the multiple is made. The fund’s equity is only part of the purchase price. In venture capital the shape is different. Most deals return a fraction of cost or nothing, and a few return many times it. So a fund’s result depends on its few big winners more than on its average deal.
For a pre-IPO investment the same arithmetic applies to one position. Say an SPV bought shares at one price, and the company later raises money at a higher one. The position’s unrealized MOIC rises, on paper. How those valuations are taken is set out in how valuations are updated.
Gross vs Net MOIC, on an Illustrative SPV Position
Gross MOIC measures the investment. Net MOIC measures what you received after every fee, expense and carry between you and it. Take an investor who subscribes $100,000 to a single-deal SPV on hypothetical terms. There is a 2% setup fee and a 1% annual management fee on the subscribed amount, settled at exit. Carry is 20%, the hold lasts six years, and the company is sold at four times the SPV’s entry price.
Illustrative terms, made up for this example and unrelated to any Axevil deal. SPV running costs are left out. Axevil sets fees and carry per deal and writes them in that SPV’s documents
A 4.0x deal became 3.29x in the investor’s hands. Both numbers are correct, and they answer different questions. That is why the SEC, the US securities regulator, sets a condition for advisers. An adviser that shows gross performance in marketing must show net performance with at least equal prominence. Both must cover the same period and use the same method (SEC Rule 206(4)-1). The fee lines themselves are explained in SPV fees and carried interest.
Why MOIC Is Always Read Next to IRR
MOIC ignores time. A 3.0x over three years and a 3.0x over seven are the same multiple and very different investments. The internal rate of return (IRR) is the yearly rate that makes the cash flows add up. So it falls as the same multiple takes longer to arrive.
Illustrative single-payment investments, with IRR = MOIC^(1 ÷ years) − 1
The last row shows the opposite trap. A high IRR on a small multiple, earned over a short period, returns little money. Read the pair together. A high MOIC with a low IRR is a lot of money that took a long time. A high IRR with a low MOIC is a fast, small result. In pre-IPO positions, you do not set the exit date. There, the multiple tends to be the more stable of the two, and the IRR shows more honestly what the wait cost.
MOIC tells you how many times your money came back. IRR tells you how long it took, as a yearly rate. Read both before you judge a result.
How Is MOIC Reported in PE? Standards as of October 2026
As of October 2026. ILPA templates are industry standards without the force of law. The SEC Marketing Rule applies to US investment advisers’ advertisements.
Common Mistakes When Reading a MOIC
- Treating a gross MOIC as yoursFees and carry sit between the deal and you. Ask for the net figure.
- Counting a valuation as cashUnrealized MOIC is a valuation. Ask what share of the multiple is realized.
- Ignoring timeThe same multiple over twice the years is roughly half the annual return.
- Comparing a deal MOIC with a fund TVPIOne measures one investment before fees. The other measures the whole fund after fees.
- Reading one top deal as a track recordA single extracted result says nothing about the deals around it.
- Assuming a listing realizes the multipleShares under a lock-up are still exposed to the market until they are sold.
The Terms This Page Uses
- MOIC
- Multiple on invested capital: realized plus unrealized value of an investment, divided by the capital invested in it.
- Realized value
- What an investment has already returned in cash or freely tradable shares.
- Unrealized value
- The current fair value of what is still held. It is a valuation with no sale behind it.
- Fair value
- An estimate of what a holding would sell for today, set under the manager’s valuation policy.
- Gross
- Before the fees, expenses and carry charged by the fund or SPV that holds the investment.
- Net
- After all fees and expenses an investor paid. It is what actually reaches the investor.
- SPV (special purpose vehicle)
- A company set up to hold one investment for a group of investors.
- IRR
- Internal rate of return: the yearly rate implied by the timing and size of the cash flows.
- TVPI
- Total value to paid-in: the fund-level multiple on what investors paid in, after fees.
Questions About MOIC
There is no universal threshold. It depends on the strategy, the holding period and whether the figure is gross or net. A multiple means something only next to the years it took and the IRR that implies. Compare like with like: same strategy, same stage, net against net.
MOIC measures one investment, or a portfolio of them, against the capital invested, usually before fees. TVPI measures a whole fund against the capital investors paid in, after fees. It splits into cash returned (DPI) and value still held (RVPI).
Yes. A MOIC of 0.6x means the investment is worth 60 cents per dollar invested, realized and unrealized combined. A written-off position has a MOIC of zero.
They carry the same information in different forms. ROI, return on investment, expresses the gain as a percentage of cost. MOIC expresses the total value as a multiple of cost. A 2.5x MOIC is a 150% ROI.
It is calculated the same way, on one position: what the SPV’s shares are worth or have returned, over what it paid. Your own net multiple is what you were distributed, or are allocated, over what you subscribed. It comes after the SPV’s fees and carry.
The same ratio, with a wider spread of results. Most venture deals return a fraction of cost or nothing, and a few return many times it. So a fund’s result depends on its few big winners, and one deal’s MOIC says little about the rest.
Add the cash the investment has returned to the current value of what is still held. Divide the sum by the capital invested. A result of 2.5x means each dollar is now worth two and a half. Below 1.0x, the investment is worth less than it cost.
Where the Standards on This Page Come From
Standards and rules were last checked on October 1, 2026. The worked examples are illustrative and contain no market data. The SEC Marketing Rule is a US rule for investment advisers. Other jurisdictions set their own rules for presenting performance.
- 01Institutional Limited Partners Association01.2025Performance Template Guidance, Granular Methodology — gross MOIC by portfolio, synthetic net MOIC, net TVPI at fund level, 2026 effective date
- 02Cornell LII · 17 CFR §275.206(4)-1Current ruleSEC Marketing Rule — gross with net, extracted performance, definitions
This page explains how a market works. It is not investment advice, not a recommendation of any security, strategy or company, and not an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy anything. Private companies may never list or be acquired, positions in them can be illiquid for years, and the entire amount invested can be lost. Figures are accurate as of the dates shown and change. Requirements for investor status, and the tax treatment of a private holding, differ by jurisdiction — the jurisdiction is named wherever this page discusses either. Prepared by the AXEVIL Capital research team.
What closed on the private market in the past two weeks
The rounds that priced, the tender offers that opened and the listings that filed — with the structure of each deal and the date on every figure. Written by the team that reads the paperwork.
Where to go from here
Fund fees & metricsWhat Is TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In)? How It Works and ExamplesTVPI is what a fund has paid out plus the value it still holds, divided by the money investors paid in. How it splits into DPI and RVPI, with a worked example.
Fund fees & metricsWhat Is a Distribution Waterfall? Definition, How It Works, ExamplesA distribution waterfall is the order in which a fund or SPV pays out money from a sale: capital back first, then a minimum return, then the manager’s share.
Fund fees & metricsWhat Is Carried Interest? Definition, How It Works and ExamplesCarried interest is the share of profit a fund or SPV manager keeps, usually 20%, paid after investors get their money back. How it works, with an example.