Capital Rotates Inside Alts as Credit Fundraising Slumps
Alternative investment fundraising totaled approximately $11.8 billion in April 2026, declining 33% from April 2025 and nearly 25% from March 2026, as a sharp contraction in credit strategies masked relative resilience elsewhere in the market, according to investment banking and research firm Robert A. Stanger & Company. Through the first four months of 2026, total fundraising reached approximately $59.3 billion, down 14% year-over-year.
The credit pullback was most acute in business development companies. Combined publicly registered and private placement BDC sales totaled approximately $1.6 billion in April — down 74% from April 2025 and the lowest monthly total since May 2023. BDC fundraising has declined sequentially every month in 2026, bringing year-to-date combined totals to approximately $10.8 billion, a 52% drop from the same period in 2025. Broader credit fundraising fell 63% year-over-year to approximately $3.7 billion in April, with credit strategies accounting for just 32% of total April fundraising, down from 56% a year ago.
“The BDC sector is now firmly in the downturn phase of the Stanger Liquidity Cycle — fundraising is contracting, redemption demand remains elevated, and investor capital is rotating out of private credit,” said Kevin T. Gannon, Chairman and CEO of Stanger. “What’s notable is that the broader alternative investment market outside of credit is holding up.”
Excluding credit, alternative fundraising totaled approximately $8.1 billion in April, up 4% year-over-year. HALO strategies — hard assets with low obsolescence — led the way, with combined real estate and infrastructure fundraising reaching approximately $17.2 billion year-to-date, up 20% from the same period in 2025. Infrastructure strategies rose 24% on a year-to-date basis, while real estate gained 16%.
“Capital isn’t leaving alternatives — it’s leaving credit,” Gannon added. “Hard asset strategies continue to show relative strength, and we expect that shift to remain a defining feature of the market in the coming months.”
