December 30, 2025
Poised to Double Over the Next Five Years
Robert A. Stanger & Company, Inc. (“Stanger”), a nationally recognized leader in non-listed alternative investment products, today announced that the alternative investment industry has officially surpassed $1 trillion in cumulative capital formation since 2000.
According to Stanger’s data, total capital formation across major categories from 2000 through November 2025 includes:
- Real Estate: $346.3 Billion
- Closed-End Funds: $312.7 Billion
- Business Development Companies (“BDCs”): $230.4 Billion
- Other Strategies: $112.6 Billion
- Total: $1 Trillion
Crossing the trillion-dollar threshold underscores the rapid acceleration in investor demand for the once niche market segment. Fundraising in 2025 alone has already hit $185.4 billion through November, with a full-year projection expected to exceed $200 billion, shattering previous records and highlighting the sector's explosive growth.
“Surpassing the trillion-dollar mark is a watershed moment that validates the mainstream adoption of alternatives,” said Kevin T. Gannon, Chairman and CEO of Stanger. “What began as a specialized market has evolved into a vital pillar of private wealth portfolios, driven by the pursuit of yield, diversification, and private market access. While real estate has historically anchored the industry, closed-end funds and BDCs are experiencing unprecedented recent inflows, fueled by private credit and private equity strategies.”
The surge reflects broader trends: institutional-grade investments once reserved for endowments and pension funds have become far more accessible for individual investors through innovative structures. Enhanced features like regular NAV reporting, greater liquidity, and partnerships with institutional-caliber managers have attracted record capital amid a supportive regulatory environment, opening the door for additional product sponsors to meet rising demand.
Stanger's data reveals dramatic year-over-year fundraising increases. Annual sales figures have climbed from $20.6 billion in 2018 to a projected total of more than $200 billion in 2025, with nearly $650 million of total capital raised since the start of 2021.
“The trillion-dollar milestone is not the finish line; it’s the starting point,” Gannon added. “Based on current trends, Stanger projects alternative investments to attract another $1 trillion of capital over the next five years.”
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About Robert A. Stanger & Co., Inc.
Robert A. Stanger & Co., Inc., founded in 1978, is a nationally recognized investment banking firm specializing in providing investment banking, financial advisory, fairness opinion and asset and securities valuation services to partnerships, real estate investment trusts and real estate advisory and management companies in support of strategic planning, capital formation and financings, mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, and consolidations.
Stanger is also well known for its industry leading publications: The Stanger Report, a nationally recognized comprehensive report focused on non-traded REIT and BDC investing, including aggregate market statistics, total returns by company and total return indices, fee structure comparisons, and profiles of current offerings; The Stanger Market Pulse, a monthly deep-dive into alternative investment fundraising; The Stanger Chairman’s Report, focused on NAV REIT and non-traded BDC sales and redemptions; The Stanger Closed-End Fund Report, focused on non-traded interval fund and tender offer fund investing, Stanger Privates, a quarterly publication focused on Private Placement REITs and BDCs exclusively available to Stanger Institutional Access subscribers; and The Alt Street Journal, a weekly newsletter providing an update on industry activities.
For More Information:
Kevin T. Gannon | Chairman & CEO | (732) 389-3600
Robert A. Stanger & Co., Inc.
1129 Broad Street, Suite 201
Shrewsbury, NJ 07702
www.rastanger.com
Member: SIPC
