**Multiple on invested capital (MoIC)** is total cash returned divided by cash invested — a 2.0x MoIC means you doubled your money. Also called the **equity multiple**. Unlike [[Internal rate of return (IRR)|IRR]], it ignores *time*: 2.0x in two years and 2.0x in ten years are the same MoIC but wildly different IRRs. That blindness is exactly why it's the honest complement to IRR. A [[Preferred return and promote|promote]] is paid on IRR, so a sponsor maximizes it by selling fast — but MoIC keeps climbing the longer you hold a compounding asset. The gap between the two metrics *is* the reason [[Promotes are incompatible with indefinite hold periods]]. In venture the same idea is split into realized vs paper multiples — see [[VC metrics - consider TVPI to DPI over IRR]] (TVPI and DPI are MoIC, before and after the money is actually in hand). Related: [[Internal rate of return (IRR)]] · [[Preferred return and promote]]