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DPI in Private Equity: Why EBITDA Growth Is Not Reaching LPs
Private equity has spent four years growing EBITDA that LPs never received as cash. The DPI Conversion Rate shows where each EBITDA dollar stops on the way to the fund, and which of those stops a sponsor can still fix during the hold.
By Gaurav Shah
Managing Partner, Arete Ventures · Former PE operating partner
Published November 2026
18 min read
Illustration: Arete Ventures.
In Brief
DPI in private equity is the cash a fund has paid back to its LPs divided by the capital they paid in. It is now the number LPs judge GPs on.
Two gates sit between EBITDA and an LP. Conversion decides whether EBITDA becomes free cash. Release decides whether that cash is allowed to leave the company.
The DPI Conversion Rate multiplies the two. Two companies with the same 20% EBITDA growth can send 42 cents or 4 cents of each EBITDA dollar to the fund.
Most of the release gate is written into the credit agreement before closing, so the fix starts in diligence.
Rank initiatives by how fast they turn into cash, and track PIK beside the rate as a claim that grows ahead of the LP.
Distributions funded with new debt bring cash forward. They leave the rate where it was.
As an operating partner, I read two documents for every portfolio company: the monthly management accounts and the lender’s compliance certificate. They are the baseline, and they look backward. They describe what happened 30 to 45 days ago. A company can meet every covenant while its customers are leaving and its sales pipeline is drying up.
So I always asked for more. A 13-week rolling cash forecast. Pipeline and win-rate reports. The operating measures of the sector, such as on-time-in-full delivery and scrap rates in a plant, or net revenue retention in software. The value creation plan tracker and capex execution reports. Staff attrition, and the aging schedules for receivables and payables, which show customers quietly paying later before the totals do.
That forward-looking set is where cash problems show up first. Value creation plans are still written in EBITDA, because EBITDA sets the exit price. That worked while exits came on schedule and the sale paid everyone back. With holds now close to seven years, LPs are asking a plainer question: when does the cash come back?
This piece sets out a way to answer it, which we call the DPI Conversion Rate.
EBITDA sets the exit price. Cash sets the distribution.
What Is DPI in Private Equity, and Why Does It Matter More Now?
DPI, or distributions to paid-in capital, is the cash a private equity fund has returned to its LPs divided by the capital they have paid in.
DPI formula
DPI = cumulative distributions ÷ paid-in capital. A fund whose LPs have paid in $100 million and received $60 million back has a DPI of 0.6x.
A DPI of 1.0x means LPs have their money back. TVPI adds the reported value of the companies the fund still holds, and IRR measures how fast the money grew. DPI counts only cash that has arrived, so it cannot be marked up.
It matters more now because the cash has slowed. Distributions as a share of fund value have been at their lowest since the financial crisis, and below the long-run average for four years running.
14%
Distributions as a share of NAV in the year to Q3 2025, a level last seen in 2008 and 2009
53%
LPs who said by end-2025 that distributions were limiting their new commitments
7 years
About the average hold at exit, with about 32,000 unsold companies worth $3.8 trillion
Source: Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2026.
What Is a Good DPI?
It depends on the fund’s age. In Dakota’s 2026 data on private equity funds by vintage, the median fund had a DPI below 0.5x at year seven and about 1.2x at year ten. The typical fund returns its LPs’ money only in its tenth year. A fund well behind its vintage peers on DPI, while its TVPI looks strong, is holding value it has not yet turned into cash.
Dealmakers have noticed the shift. In a KPMG survey published in August 2026, 70% said DPI has become a more important metric.
The pressure on operating plans runs the other way. Bain estimates that a 2.5 times return over five years now needs about 12% EBITDA growth a year, against about 5% a decade ago. Fast growth usually eats working capital and capex. The plans built to hit return targets are often the ones that turn the least EBITDA into cash.
What Is the DPI Conversion Rate?
The DPI Conversion Rate, or DCR, is the share of a company’s EBITDA that can become cash for its fund, measured as conversion multiplied by release.
Two gates sit between a dollar of EBITDA and an LP. The first is conversion: does the EBITDA become free cash flow? The second is release: is that cash allowed, and chosen, to leave the company? A dollar has to pass both. A company’s cash conversion rate on its own covers only the first.
The formula
DPI Conversion Rate = Conversion × Release
Conversion = free cash flow ÷ EBITDA
Release = cash distributable to the fund ÷ free cash flow
Shown beside it: PIK interest accrued in the period
Free cash flow here is EBITDA less cash tax, cash interest, capex, the increase in working capital, and cash costs that adjusted EBITDA leaves out. Distributable cash is what remains after required loan repayments, the lenders’ cash sweep and cash kept to reinvest, within the limits the credit agreement sets on dividends.
PIK sits beside the rate because it is not a cash cost. Interest paid in kind is added to the loan each period, and the loan is repaid ahead of the equity at exit. It reduces what LPs will receive without ever showing up as cash going out.
Exhibit 1
The two gates
Source: Arete Ventures.
How to calculate the DPI Conversion Rate in five steps
1. Take EBITDA for the last twelve months.
2. Subtract cash tax, cash interest, capex, the rise in working capital and cash costs excluded from adjusted EBITDA. Divide the result by EBITDA. That is conversion.
3. From free cash flow, subtract required loan repayments, the cash sweep and cash kept to reinvest, then apply the credit agreement’s limit on dividends. Divide what is left by free cash flow. That is release.
4. Multiply conversion by release. That is the DPI Conversion Rate.
5. Write the PIK interest accrued in the period next to it.
When free cash flow is zero or negative, the ratio stops meaning anything. Report DCR as negative, show the cash burn in dollars, and name the quarter in which conversion is expected to turn positive.
The same rate works for a single initiative: the cash it produces before the planned exit, divided by the EBITDA it adds over the same period.
Why DCR Matters When the Exit Pays Most of the Money Back
In most buyouts, the sale returns more cash to LPs than anything paid out during the hold. DCR still drives DPI in two ways. It decides how much cash LPs can receive while they wait for a sale, and they are waiting longer than any plan assumed. It also shapes the sale itself. Cash swept to lenders reduces debt, and that becomes equity when the company is sold. A buyer’s quality of earnings team builds its own bridge from EBITDA to cash, and any gap it cannot explain comes off the price.
Why Does EBITDA Growth Not Turn Into Free Cash Flow?
Because growth needs working capital and capex, debt costs cash, and some costs left out of adjusted EBITDA are still paid in cash.
Working Capital Grows With Revenue
When sales grow, receivables and inventory grow with them, and the company pays for both before its customers pay it. In the monthly accounts this shows in days sales outstanding and inventory days, which together with payables make up the cash conversion cycle. If those days drift up while revenue grows, the company is funding its customers and its warehouse with the fund’s money.
The receivables aging schedule shows the drift first, when a few large customers start paying a week or two later. Read month-end balances across the whole quarter, too. Quarter-end is the figure a company manages for its covenant test, and a business that collects hard in the last week of every quarter has a conversion problem the compliance certificate will not show. The first fix is usually collections discipline and stock targets set product line by product line.
A business that collects hard in the last week of every quarter has a conversion problem the compliance certificate will not show.
The Plan Depends on Capex
Growth plans often need new capacity, machinery or systems. The warning sign is capex running above depreciation year after year, with no end date in the plan. I have run industrial plants, and the opposite habit costs just as much. Maintenance deferred to protect EBITDA does not go away. It comes back as a larger repair, often in the year a buyer’s engineers walk the site.
Interest Is Paid in Cash, and Part of It Is Taxed
Floating-rate interest shows up in interest cover on the compliance certificate, and it moves with rates. There is also a US tax point most cash bridges miss. The interest deduction is capped at 30% of adjusted taxable income, which since 2025 has again been measured on an EBITDA basis, and that rule is now permanent. Roughly, a company with $48 million of EBITDA can deduct about $14.4 million of interest. If it pays $20 million, the other $5.6 million comes out of taxed income, which at the 21% federal rate adds about $1.2 million of cash tax a year.
One-Off Costs That Come Back Every Year
Restructuring, integration and similar costs are added back to reach adjusted EBITDA, but they are still paid in cash. When the same kind of add-back appears every year, it is a running cost. It shows as a widening gap between adjusted EBITDA and the cash the company produces. S&P Global Ratings has tracked add-backs in leveraged deals in a series of annual studies, and its fifth, in 2023, found that management teams continue to regularly miss their projections.
Free cash flow conversion depends on the business model as much as on the management team. A distributor that must hold stock will never convert like a software company that bills a year in advance. A sponsor needs to know at entry what range the business can reach, because no operating plan fixes a model that needs cash to grow.
Why Does Free Cash Stay Trapped Inside the Company?
Because the credit agreement takes part of it, the plan keeps part of it, and the rest waits for an exit that has not come.
The Credit Agreement Takes Its Share First
Most sponsor loans include an excess cash flow sweep, which sends a share of each year’s free cash to lenders, often half, until leverage falls below set levels. Separately, a restricted-payment test blocks dividends to the owner until a leverage ratio is met or a basket has room. Both are written before closing, and both run on figures the operating team seldom reads.
The Plan Keeps Cash for Growth
Add-on acquisitions, earn-out payments and integration costs absorb cash that could have gone to the fund. Some of that reinvestment earns more than LPs could. Some of it is simply the plan’s default setting.
Arete view
The Reinvestment Test
Keep cash in the company only when the new money is expected to return more than the fund’s target net return, and to come back before the planned exit. If it fails either test, the cash belongs to the LPs.
Swept Cash Waits for the Exit
Cash swept to lenders is not lost. It pays down debt, so it becomes equity value. That value reaches LPs only when someone buys the company, and buyers have been scarcer than plans assumed. Our piece on exit multiple diligence covers what the next buyer can actually pay.
Release is the gate operators manage least, because it sits in legal documents the operating team rarely opens.
How Can Two Companies Grow EBITDA 20% and Return Different Cash?
Because one converts and releases its cash and the other does not, and most of the difference could be seen before closing.
The pattern is common in industrial businesses. Two companies each grow EBITDA from $40 million to $48 million, and each carries $144 million of debt, three times EBITDA. Company A collects cash up front, keeps stock lean and runs on light assets. Company B sells to customers who pay slowly, built inventory for growth and needed new machinery. Its loan also kept a stricter cash sweep.
Exhibit 2
Same EBITDA growth, different DCR
$ millions, one year
Company A
Company B
EBITDA
Company A: 48
Company B: 48
Cash tax
Company A: (6)
Company B: (6)
Cash interest
Company A: (12)
Company B: (12)
Capex
Company A: (4)
Company B: (10)
Increase in working capital
Company A: 0
Company B: (7)
Cash costs left out of adjusted EBITDA
Company A: (1)
Company B: (1)
Free cash flow
Company A: 25
Company B: 12
Conversion
Company A: 52%
Company B: 25%
Required loan repayments
Company A: (2)
Company B: (2)
Excess cash flow sweep
Company A: 0
Company B: (5)
Kept to reinvest
Company A: (3)
Company B: (3)
Cash distributable to the fund
Company A: 20
Company B: 2
Release
Company A: 80%
Company B: 17%
DPI Conversion Rate
Company A: 42%
Company B: 4%
Illustrative. Both companies carry $144 million of debt (3.0x EBITDA). A’s credit agreement drops the sweep to 0% below 3.5x leverage. B’s steps from 50% to 25% only below 2.5x, and to 0% below 2.0x. Source: Arete Ventures.
A sends 42 cents of every EBITDA dollar to the fund, and B sends 4. Their growth, their debt and their EBITDA are the same.
The two gates multiply. Give B the working capital and capex profile of A, and its rate rises from 4% to about 18%, because the sweep still takes half of the extra cash. Remove B’s sweep and keep its operations, and the rate reaches only about 15%. Fix both and it reaches 42%. An operating plan can work on the first gate. The second was agreed in the credit agreement before closing, and no operating plan reaches it.
B’s $5 million sweep is not wasted. It pays down debt and turns into equity value, which reaches LPs when someone buys the company. Until then, the fund holds a company that is doing well on paper and paying out almost nothing.
The two gates multiply. A company has to pass both.
Can a Buyer Widen the Release Gate Before Signing?
Yes, because most of release is set in the credit agreement, so a buyer can model it and negotiate it during diligence.
Exhibit 3
Terms that decide release
Term
What it does to release
Model before signing
Arete view
Excess cash flow sweep
What it does to release: Sends a share of free cash to lenders each year
Model before signing: The sweep in each plan year, at the leverage the plan expects
Arete view: Aim for step-downs the base case reaches within two years
Restricted-payment leverage test
What it does to release: Blocks dividends until leverage falls below a set level
Model before signing: The first year the plan passes it
Arete view: Set it so the base case passes well before the planned exit
Builder basket and starter amount
What it does to release: Allows payouts from retained cash or earnings even before the test is met
Model before signing: The room available each year
Arete view: A starter amount gives room for an early distribution without new debt
Required loan repayments
What it does to release: Fixed repayments that come before any payout
Model before signing: The annual amount
Arete view: Keep them low in the years the plan needs cash to grow
EBITDA definition and add-back caps
What it does to release: Sets the covenant EBITDA every release test uses
Model before signing: Covenant EBITDA against cash EBITDA
Arete view: Test every release step on cash as well
Tax distributions and management fees
What it does to release: Cash that leaves before LPs see any
Model before signing: The annual amount
Arete view: Count it in release
PIK terms, maturity and call protection
What it does to release: Decides whether interest compounds and when it must be refinanced
Model before signing: Maturity against the planned exit; call premiums
Arete view: Leave a refinancing window well before maturity
Arete view is an operator’s input for deal counsel and the financing team, not legal advice. Source: Arete Ventures.
Model Release Year by Year in the Entry Case
Most entry models show EBITDA, leverage and the exit. Few show, year by year, how much cash can legally leave the company. Add that line, and show the investment committee the first year in which cash can reach the fund.
Plan the First 100 Days Around the Step-Downs
Sweep step-downs are tied to leverage. If the plan reaches a step-down a year earlier, release rises with no change in operations. That makes the path to lower leverage one of the first things a 100-day plan should set.
Covenant EBITDA Is Not Cash
Every release test runs on covenant EBITDA, the version defined in the credit agreement, which usually includes add-backs. Generous add-backs can carry a company below a step-down, or open a dividend basket, while its cash conversion is weak. A dividend paid at that point takes out cash the company still needs. Before any payout, check the release test against cash as well as covenant EBITDA.
These are inputs for deal counsel and the financing team. We do not negotiate credit documents or give legal advice. Our buy-side M&A advisory work tests the operating case those documents rest on before signing.
Which Initiatives Turn Into Cash Fastest?
Pricing and procurement turn into cash within months, growth that needs stock and receivables takes longer, and footprint moves cost cash first.
Exhibit 4
EBITDA impact against months to cash
Arete view. Timing varies by business. Source: Arete Ventures.
Illustrative
Same EBITDA, two years left in the hold
$ millions over two years
Pricing program
Volume growth
EBITDA added
Pricing program: 8
Volume growth: 8
Tax
Pricing program: (2)
Volume growth: (2)
Working capital
Pricing program: (0.5)
Volume growth: (6)
Capex
Pricing program: 0
Volume growth: (2)
Cash produced
Pricing program: 5.5
Volume growth: (2)
Initiative DCR
Pricing program: 69%
Volume growth: Negative
Illustrative. Each program adds $4 million of EBITDA a year. Source: Arete Ventures.
An EBITDA scorecard ranks these two programs as equal. With two years left before the planned exit, the pricing program returns $5.5 million of cash. The volume program consumes $2 million, because the stock and receivables it needs are paid for before the extra profit arrives. Its cash comes after the sale, and only if the buyer pays for it. Late in a hold, rank initiatives by the cash they deliver before the exit.
The best cash lever often adds no EBITDA at all. At a distribution business we worked with, the cash came from faster collections, leaner stock and better supplier terms. It released $27.1 million, and the sponsor cancelled an equity injection it had been preparing. On an EBITDA scorecard, the program barely registered. Our private equity performance improvement work starts from cases like this.
In a turnaround the order holds. Cash comes first, because a company short of cash cannot wait for EBITDA to arrive.
Agree the Write-Down With Lenders Before Clearing Stock
Clearing old stock releases cash, but the write-down that comes with it lowers EBITDA in the same quarter. If the credit agreement does not exclude that charge, covenant EBITDA falls and leverage rises on paper. The company can then move back above a sweep step-down, or lose room in a dividend basket, in the quarter the cash arrives. Agree with the lenders how the write-down will be treated before the program starts.
Pay Management on Cash as Well as EBITDA
Management bonuses are usually set against EBITDA, and management equity pays out on the exit price. Nobody inside the company is paid for cash that reaches the fund. Put free cash flow against plan into the annual bonus scorecard, with enough weight to change decisions on stock, collections and capex. Of all the changes a board can make to lift the rate, this one usually acts fastest.
Is Refinancing Out of PIK Debt a Good Sign or a Warning?
It depends on who chose the timing: a refinancing chosen early, from strength, stops the compounding, while one forced by maturity often swaps PIK for something worse.
Payment-in-kind, or PIK, debt lets a company pay interest by adding it to the loan. It is expensive. PIK debt often costs 13% to 15%, and Bloomberg has reported rates as high as 16%. A senior loan that refinances it typically costs about 7% to 8%, with SOFR near 3.9% in early November 2026.
The cost of waiting compounds. $50 million of PIK at 14% grows to about $96 million in five years. Refinanced into a 7.5% senior loan on day one, it costs $3.75 million of cash interest a year and stops growing. Refinanced in year five, the larger balance costs about $7.2 million a year.
Illustrative
PIK balance on $50 million over five years
The Healthy Refinancing
The company converts enough EBITDA to carry cash interest, and lenders compete for the new loan well before the PIK matures. Once it closes, the claim stops growing, and so does the share of the company it takes from the LPs.
The Forced Refinancing
The PIK loan is close to maturity and the company’s cash cannot carry a senior loan. What is left is rescue financing at a higher cost, or preferred equity that ranks ahead of the sponsor and takes part of the ownership. Some companies refinance because they are healthy. Others refinance because the maturity date has arrived.
Exhibit 5
Healthy refinancing or forced one
Question
Healthy
Forced
How many months remain to PIK maturity, against the time a full refinancing process needs?
Healthy: Comfortably more
Forced: About the same, or fewer
Does free cash flow cover the new cash interest with room to spare if EBITDA falls?
Healthy: Yes
Forced: Only if the plan is met
What does the new money cost in total, counting fees, warrants and any preferred equity, against the PIK it replaces?
Healthy: Less
Forced: More, or paid in ownership
Market practice. Source: Arete Ventures.
The strain is visible in lender data. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that the share of business development company loans using PIK rose from about 6% to about 10% between early 2022 and early 2026, and it reads the rise as a sign of pressure on borrowers’ cash flow.
Leaving PIK is a conversion problem first. A company that cannot carry cash interest cannot take the cheaper loan, however good the terms on offer.
Which Distributions Are Earned, and Which Are Borrowed?
A distribution is earned when it comes through conversion and release; dividend recaps, NAV loans and continuation vehicles bring cash forward with new debt or a new owner.
A dividend recap raises new debt at the company to fund a payout. The extra interest lowers future conversion. PE-owned US companies borrowed $94 billion in 2025 to fund payouts, according to Moody’s.
A NAV loan is borrowed at the fund level against the value of the portfolio, and its interest is paid from future proceeds. Our article on look-through leverage traces these loans, and every other layer of borrowing, from the companies up to the fund. LPs can test a fund’s own figures with our free Look-Through Leverage Calculator.
A continuation vehicle sells a company to a new vehicle run by the same GP. LPs who sell receive cash. Those who roll over keep the same company at a new price. GP-led continuation value grew 62% in 2025, and more than half of GPs cited LP liquidity as a main reason, Bain reports.
All three raise DPI today. None changes the DPI Conversion Rate, so an LP reading a GP’s DPI needs to know where the cash came from.
What Should LPs and Boards Ask About Cash Conversion?
LPs should ask where each distribution came from, and boards should see the DPI Conversion Rate every quarter beside EBITDA.
For LPs: Six Questions for a GP
1. How much of the portfolio’s EBITDA growth since entry has become free cash flow?
2. How much of that cash is held back by sweeps, dividend limits or reinvestment?
3. Which distributions in the last three years came from operations, and which from recaps, NAV loans or continuation vehicles?
4. What share of portfolio interest is paid in kind, and when does it mature?
5. Which companies sit above their sweep step-downs, and when will they cross them?
6. Which value creation initiatives carry a cash target as well as an EBITDA target?
For Boards: The Quarterly DCR Page
Most board packs open with EBITDA and leave cash for the back pages. Put this page next to the EBITDA page, with the 13-week cash forecast and the lender’s compliance certificate in the same pack.
Exhibit 6
The quarterly DCR page
Line
This quarter
Last twelve months
Plan
EBITDA, reported and covenant
Cash tax, cash interest, capex
Change in working capital
Cash add-backs
Free cash flow and conversion
Required repayments and cash sweep
Cash kept to reinvest
Distributable cash and release
DPI Conversion Rate
PIK accrued and PIK balance
Months to the next sweep step-down
Months to PIK maturity
Source: Arete Ventures.
How a Performance Improvement Engagement Raises DCR
We start from a DCR baseline built from the last twelve months of accounts and the credit agreement, then set the cash each initiative must deliver, quarter by quarter, before the planned exit.
Engagements run 12 to 30 weeks on a fixed fee, with no share of the gains. The work ends with a cash target for each initiative by quarter, the path to the next sweep step-down, and the quarter in which cash can first reach the fund. It is how our performance improvement consulting is measured: in cash the LPs can receive.
Where Markets Stand · As of 8 November 2026
Distributions were about 14% of NAV in the year to Q3 2025, below the historical average for a record fourth year (Bain).
53% of LPs said distributions limited new commitments at end-2025 (Bain).
GP-led continuation value grew 62% in 2025 (Bain).
About 10% of BDC loans used PIK in early 2026, up from about 6% in early 2022 (Boston Fed).
PE-owned US companies borrowed $94 billion to fund payouts in 2025 (Moody’s).
SOFR: 3.92% on 5 November 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
DPI, or distributions to paid-in capital, is the total cash a private equity fund has returned to its LPs divided by the capital they have paid in. A DPI of 1.0x means LPs have their money back. DPI counts only cash received, so unlike TVPI or IRR it cannot be raised by marking up companies the fund still holds.
Divide cumulative distributions to LPs by cumulative paid-in capital. If LPs have paid in $100 million and received $60 million back, DPI is 0.6x. Distributions include cash from exits, dividends and recapitalizations. Capital called to pay management fees and fund expenses counts as paid-in capital.
It depends on the fund’s age. In Dakota’s 2026 data, the median private equity fund had a DPI below 0.5x at year seven and about 1.2x at year ten, so the typical fund returns its LPs’ money only in year ten. A fund well behind its vintage peers on DPI, while showing a strong TVPI, is holding value it has not yet turned into cash.
DPI counts cash returned. TVPI adds the reported value of companies still held, so it equals DPI plus the residual value multiple. IRR is the annualized return, which depends on timing and can be lifted by using credit lines to delay capital calls. A fund can show a strong TVPI and IRR with a low DPI if it has sold little.
The DPI Conversion Rate (DCR) is a measure, developed by Arete Ventures, of how much of a portfolio company’s EBITDA can become cash for its fund. It multiplies conversion, which is free cash flow divided by EBITDA, by release, which is distributable cash divided by free cash flow. PIK interest is shown beside it, because it grows ahead of the LP.
Free cash flow conversion is free cash flow divided by EBITDA. It shows how much of a company’s reported profit becomes cash after tax, interest, capex and working capital. It matters to LPs because distributions are paid from cash, and because the next buyer and its lenders pay more for earnings that convert.
Two gates sit in the way. Growth can consume the cash it produces through working capital, capex, interest and add-backs that recur. Cash the company does produce can then be held inside it by lender sweeps, limits on dividends and reinvestment. Two companies with the same EBITDA growth can send very different amounts of cash to their fund.
It depends on who chose the timing. Refinancing early into a cheaper senior loan, from strength and well before maturity, stops the PIK balance from compounding. A refinancing forced by an approaching maturity often replaces PIK with rescue debt or preferred equity that costs more and takes ownership from the sponsor and its LPs.
Yes. Exits return most of the cash in a typical buyout, but conversion shapes both parts. It decides how much LPs can receive while they wait for a sale, and holds are running longer than plans assumed. It also shapes the exit, because buyers and lenders pay for earnings that turn into cash, and debt repaid from cash becomes equity at the sale.
A plan that grows EBITDA and never releases cash asks LPs to wait for the exit, and to trust that it comes.
Arete Ventures provides private equity performance improvement for US private equity firms and their portfolio companies. Gaurav Shah spent sixteen years as an operating partner at a San Francisco private equity firm, where three of five portfolio companies exited above plan during his time in the role. He sits on venture capital and private equity investment committees. He is a chemical engineer who has built and run industrial plants in the US.
Sources
Bain & Company, “Private Equity Midyear Report 2026” (EBITDA growth needed for a 2.5x return)
Dakota, “How Long Does It Take Private Equity Funds to Reach DPI of 1.0x?”, 2026
Grant Thornton, “OBBBA restores previous 163(j) benefits, adds some new limitations,” 2025
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, research on PIK in BDC portfolios, August 2026
Examples marked illustrative are hypothetical. Figures from outside sources are as of the dates shown. Arete Ventures is not a registered investment adviser and does not give investment, legal or tax advice.
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