Retail Capital Pushes 2025 Alts Fundraising to $204B
The surge in retail capital pushed cumulative alternative fundraising past the $1 trillion mark over the past 25 years. Business development companies led the market in 2025 with $63.0 billion raised, followed by interval funds at $39.8 billion and tender offer funds at $33.1 billion.
“Publicly registered and private BDC fundraising surpassed $63 billion in 2025. However, fourth quarter sales and preliminary redemption results tell the story of a new market dynamic,” said Kevin T. Gannon, chairman and CEO of Stanger.
While full-year BDC fundraising rose 13.9% versus 2024, momentum slowed late in the year amid heightened scrutiny around loan defaults, valuation transparency, and interest rate uncertainty. Combined monthly fundraising for publicly registered and private BDCs declined to $4.8 billion in December, down 22.6% from the March peak of $6.2 billion.
“BDC fundraising in Q4 recorded a 10.1% decline from the prior quarter, and redemptions reported by publicly registered non-traded BDCs to date show a combined increase of 200% among vehicles with aggregate NAVs exceeding $1 billion,” Gannon added.
Elsewhere, public non-traded REIT fundraising held steady at $5.7 billion, while private non-traded REITs surged 80.9% to $9.5 billion. DST fundraising climbed 45.4% to $8.2 billion.
“The recent rise in fundraising levels for non-traded REITs and DSTs has coincided with performance rebounding significantly after two challenging years,” Gannon said, noting the Stanger NAV REIT Total Return Index is expected to finish 2025 at an all-time high with a preliminary 5.8% return.
According to Randy Sweetman, executive managing director at Stanger, the leading alternative investment fundraisers in 2025 were Blackstone, which raised $28.0 billion, followed by KKR at $16.6 billion, Cliffwater at $16.5 billion, Ares at $16.0 billion, and Blue Owl at $15.3 billion. Rounding out the top ten were Apollo with $10.2 billion, StepStone at $7.5 billion, Brookfield at $5.3 billion, Goldman Sachs at $4.7 billion, and HPS Investment Partners with $4.6 billion in capital raised.