MOIC Calculator
The formula
What the moic tells you
Every dollar in versus every dollar out — cash back plus the current mark. Duration-blind by design, which is both its virtue and its sin.
Calculation: MOIC = (distributions + residual) ÷ invested. Enter your inputs and every substitution is shown below the result.
Reading the result
Decompose into DPI and RVPI: a 3× made of 0.5 cash and 2.5 mark is a forecast wearing a result's clothes.
Rules of thumb: Median venture funds gross 1.1–2× over a decade; top decile exceeds 4×
Limitations and best practice
Definitions of gross/net and recycled capital move MOIC between managers — compare like terms only.
This calculator gives an estimate based on standard formulas; it is not professional financial, medical, legal or engineering advice. Verify anything you plan to act on with a qualified professional and your own records.
Frequently asked questions
MOIC or IRR — which is real?
Why does net matter to LPs?
Source & methodology
ILPA reporting standards.
MOIC: the number, the method and the caveats
This page was written for one job: turning your own inputs into a defensible figure, with the working shown. MOIC is the kind of number people argue about from memory. This page ends that argument with arithmetic you can watch happen: enter your figures, get Gross MOIC in real time, and see every substitution printed below.
Business runs on numbers that are cheap to compute and expensive to ignore. MOIC in Business & Entrepreneurship is one of those: MOIC = (distributions + residual) ÷ invested, and the gap between founders who check and founders who hope shows up exactly here.
In plain terms, MOIC answers the question "Gross MOIC?". The measurement matters because it converts a situation that feels complicated — several inputs pulling in different directions — into a single number you can act on. Within Business & Entrepreneurship, Startup Metrics is the context where this figure is quoted most often, and professionals treat it as a first-pass screen rather than a verdict.
What makes a calculation page trustworthy is that its copy is derived from its own arithmetic: here gross MOIC = 1.78 ×, recomputed every time a field changes, and the sensitivity section ranks the inputs that move the result — Total invested first, at ≈11.1 % of the headline for a ten-percent error either way in that input — which is the thread the rest of this guide pulls on.
The MOIC formula, explained
The engine implements a single stated model: MOIC = (distributions + residual) ÷ invested. There is no hidden coefficient and no login-gated precision — the formula printed is the formula executed, which is also what makes the result citable.
Total invested ($) (example value 100,500,000) is a numeric input whose unit is fixed by the label; a wrong unit is a wrong answer wearing a plausible disguise. Replace the example with the figure from your own records — the tool recomputes instantly and the printed steps follow your numbers.
Distributions received ($) (example value 29,945,511) is a plain measured quantity — the unit shown in the label is the unit the formula expects. If you are unsure what belongs in this field, look at the printed steps: the substitution shows exactly how the engine uses it.
Unrealized value ($) (example value 148,850,000) is a measured number in the unit named by the label; the formula does not convert for you. Replace the example with the figure from your own records — the tool recomputes instantly and the printed steps follow your numbers.
A fully worked MOIC example
Rather than describe the calculation, here it is end to end — every substitution in order, starting from the inputs above. Starting figures: Total invested ($), Distributions received ($), Unrealized value ($). The computed gross MOIC comes out at 1.78 ×, which the interpretation band labels “Value created, modestly”.
- MOIC = ($29,945,511 + $148,850,000) ÷ $100,500,000 = 1.78×
DPI (cash only) — 0.30 ×. Read next to the headline, this is the figure that shows the shape of the trade-off.
RVPI (paper only) — 1.48 ×. If your inputs change, this is usually the first companion figure to move.
Rough net MOIC after 2/20 — 1.46 ×. If your inputs change, this is usually the first companion figure to move.
Keep this worked example open while you enter your own figures: matching the shape of the substitution is the fastest way to spot a unit or convention mistake.
How far MOIC can reasonably move
The honest version of any estimate is a corridor, and this one is cheap to produce: MOIC was recomputed at 5 points along the dominant input, with every other field left untouched.
| Total invested setting | Gross MOIC |
|---|---|
| 80 % of the example value | 2.22 × |
| 90 % of the example value | 1.98 × |
| example inputs | 1.78 × |
| 110 % of the example value | 1.62 × |
| 120 % of the example value | 1.48 × |
The corridor runs from 1.48 × to 2.22 × across that band — which is the range worth planning inside rather than the single 1.78 × point estimate. Reproduce it in the form above by editing Total invested alone; the substitution steps will follow your figures exactly.
The levers behind MOIC, ranked by effect
Nobody should have to guess which input matters. The engine was re-run once per field below — ten percent up, ten percent down, everything else frozen — and the results ranked by how far they moved the gross MOIC. It is the fastest honest answer to “what matters most in MOIC?” — and it is specific to these defaults, because sensitivity moves with the starting point.
- Total invested: ten percent up gives 1.62 ×, ten percent down gives 1.98 × — ≈11.1 % of the gross MOIC either way
- Nudge Unrealized value by ±10 % and MOIC lands between 1.63 × and 1.93 × (sensitivity ≈8.3 %)
- Distributions received +10 % → MOIC = 1.81 × · −10 % → 1.75 × (the gross MOIC shifts ≈1.7 %)
Total invested is the dominant lever here: ten percent either way moves the result by about 11.1 %, from 1.62 × to 1.98 ×. Spend your verification effort there first, and treat Unrealized value as the second priority (≈8.3 % per ten percent). Everything below that can stay approximate, which is a licence to stop chasing data that would not change the decision.
Reading the result: bands, zones and thresholds
Nobody acts on a bare figure — they act on a figure with a comparison attached. On the example inputs the band reads “Value created, modestly”; your own figures place you on a different rung of the same ladder. Before treating the band as fact, note its width: ten percent either way on Total invested already spans 1.62 × to 1.98 ×. The practical reading rules: compare against your own history before comparing against other people; treat band boundaries as zones, not walls — one point on the wrong side of a threshold rarely changes a real outcome; and when a companion output contradicts the headline, believe the pair.
Placing this figure in context: calculators of this kind differ less in arithmetic than in what they choose to ignore. This one keeps Total invested ($) explicit so that the omissions are visible rather than hidden in a preset.
The errors that quietly break an MOIC figure
Definitions of gross/net and recycled capital move MOIC between managers — compare like terms only. This calculator gives an estimate based on standard formulas; it is not professional financial, medical, legal or engineering advice. Verify anything you plan to act on with a qualified professional and your own records.
Comparing an MOIC computed here with a figure from another source that uses different conventions. Same name, different denominator — the disagreement is usually in the definitions, not the data.
Attention is also misallocated between fields. Having measured this engine, we can say where it belongs: Total invested first, everything else second.
Another is comparing across contexts: an MOIC computed with one set of conventions should never be lined up against a figure computed with another. Check the inputs behind both before ranking them.
Six things to confirm before acting on MOIC
- Note the date and the inputs beside the number so the figure can be audited later.
- Confirm the example values are plausible for your own situation before replacing them.
- Check Total invested before anything else: it is the measured dominant input, ≈11.1 % of MOIC per ten percent.
- Verify each input against its original source document, not memory.
- Check that every field the formula needs actually arrived from a document, not from recollection.
- Repeat the ±10 % test on the inputs that matter and see whether the decision — not just the number — still holds.
Five steps from raw inputs to a figure you can defend
The tool does the arithmetic; the routine below is what makes the arithmetic trustworthy. Five steps, a minute total — and afterwards you will know not just what the number is, but which assumption produced it.
Step 1 — one document, one pass. Open the statement, label or record that holds total invested ($), distributions received ($), unrealized value ($) and transcribe straight into the form. Transcription from a single source removes the mismatch errors that appear when figures are assembled from three different places. If the answer changes your behaviour, it deserves a second run with different assumptions.
Step 2 — compute the version you would not be embarrassed by. If a stranger audited your inputs, which set would you hand over? Enter that set, read the result, and treat everything else as upside. The point of transparency is that a reader can disagree with a specific line rather than with you.
Step 3 — isolate your variables. Change one field, observe, revert. The live sensitivity list does the ranking for the default inputs; verify it against your own, because dominance shifts when the starting point shifts. When in doubt, prefer the boring input: the interesting one is usually the one you misread.
Step 4 — run the scenario trio. Expected, pessimistic, optimistic. The gap between pessimistic and expected is the number to plan against; the optimistic result is useful only as a ceiling. Repeating a calculation with the same numbers proves only that the arithmetic is reliable — which is worth knowing.
Step 5 — schedule the next run. In Business & Entrepreneurship the inputs drift quietly. Put a reminder a quarter out, re-enter the same fields, and read the change rather than the level. Write the figure down before moving on; memory flatters whichever number you saw last.
The real-world conversations MOIC settles
Most Startup Metrics disagreements are arithmetic disagreements in disguise. When Gross MOIC of 1.78 × sits on the table with its working shown, the conversation stops being about who sounds more confident and starts being about which input is wrong. Note the assumption you are least sure about; that is where the real risk lives.
The audience for this page is people who need one trustworthy number before their next decision. In professional Startup Metrics practice the pattern is always the same — screen with MOIC, then invest slow analysis only in whatever survives the screen. Half of a good calculation is knowing which input you would hate to be wrong about.
There is a personal-administration use people overlook: periodic self-checking. MOIC quietly drifts as life changes — rates move, bodies change, costs compound — and re-running it a few times a year catches drift while correction is still cheap. The fastest sanity test is to guess the answer first and see how far the calculation disagrees.
People also ask about MOIC
What affects MOIC the most?
The short answer: Total invested. The longer answer is the sensitivity table on this page, where every numeric input was probed by ten percent and the gross MOIC recalculated — Total invested moved it furthest, by roughly 11.1 % (1.62 × to 1.98 ×).
Which matters more: unrealized value or total invested?
Total invested, by a factor of about 1.3. Concretely: ten percent on Total invested is worth ≈11.1 % of MOIC, the same nudge on Unrealized value only ≈8.3 %. That ranking is re-computed for each page from that page’s own defaults.
What is a typical MOIC?
With the example inputs on this page the result is 1.78 ×, labelled “Value created, modestly”. “Typical” varies with situation, which is why every result here ships with its verdict band and its sensitivity list: they turn one figure into a range you can locate yourself inside.
How do I calculate MOIC by hand?
MOIC = (distributions + residual) ÷ invested is the entire method. Work the inputs in that order — MOIC = ($29,945,511 + $148,850,000) ÷ $100,500,000 = 1.78× — and you will reach 1.78 × on the default figures, the same number this tool prints.
What happens to MOIC if total invested changes by 10 %?
The engine was re-run with that field moved by ten percent while everything else stayed fixed: the gross MOIC goes across 1.62 × to 1.98 ×, a swing of roughly 11.1 % around the 1.78 × baseline. That ratio is the practical definition of how much this input matters.
Is the MOIC result of 1.78 × good or bad?
Neither, on its own — the label “Value created, modestly” is the band this figure falls in for the example inputs, and your own inputs will place you elsewhere on the same ladder. Judge the number against your history and your alternatives, and remember that a ten-percent error in Total invested alone moves it by ≈11.1 %.
What does 1.78 × tell me about the business?
It answers the narrow question mechanically and the broad question only in context: MOIC is one dashboard light, and it pairs with unit economics and cash timing before any bet the business size.
What affects MOIC the most?
Sensitivity depends on where you start, but the inputs Total invested ($) and Distributions received ($) typically move MOIC further than the rest because they enter the formula multiplicatively. If you can only measure two things well, measure those and hold the others at conservative defaults.
MOIC or IRR — which is real?
They are complements; funds report both precisely because each hides the other's weakness.
Why does net matter to LPs?
A 2× gross can land near 1.5× net — the fee stack is the single biggest line in private returns.
Can this tool see the numbers I type?
It cannot. There is no submission step: the calculation happens in your browser and the result disappears when you close the page. Treat the fields above as a scratchpad rather than a form.
Glossary for MOIC
- DPI (cash only)
- 0.30 × in the default MOIC calculation — one of the secondary figures an experienced reader checks before trusting the primary number.
- RVPI (paper only)
- 1.48 × on the example inputs — a companion figure printed beside the headline of MOIC so that no result is read in isolation.
- Rough net MOIC after 2/20
- 1.46 × on the example inputs — a companion figure printed beside the headline of MOIC so that no result is read in isolation.
- Gross MOIC
- The primary output of this tool: 1.78 × for the default inputs, computed exactly from MOIC = (distributions + residual) ÷ invested.
- Worked example
- The calculation written out in full so that nothing on this page has to be taken on trust.
- Verdict band
- The interpretation attached to a result (“Value created, modestly” on these inputs), which turns a bare number into a position on a scale.
- Sensitivity (±10 %)
- How far the MOIC moves when a single input is nudged ten percent either way; the ranked list on this page is computed live from this engine.
Where the MOIC model comes from
There is no black box on this page — the engine evaluates MOIC = (distributions + residual) ÷ invested. Source of record: ILPA reporting standards. Specialist software layers extra coefficients on top of the same algebra; none are hidden here, and that transparency is what makes a disagreement traceable to a specific input instead of a black box.
Treat the output as a precise answer to the question you typed: exact arithmetic, transparent formula, published source, no hidden rounding. The promise to the reader is narrow and testable: same inputs, same output, no silent rounding, and no figure presented without the formula that produced it.
After the number: what to do with it
Save the number together with its inputs and today’s date; an MOIC figure without context is unusable the moment an input changes.
Whoever you are (people who need one trustworthy number before their next decision), the next step is the same: replace the example inputs with your own, note the date, and re-run whenever a figure moves. In Business & Entrepreneurship, a dated figure is a trend, and an undated one is a rumour.