Alternative Investing Report - November 13, 2025

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*as of 11/12; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50

The average seed stage valuation in Q3 was a record-high $16.4 million, an 18.8% increase year-over-year, while the average Series A valuation also set a record at more than $50 million, a 40% gain over two years. Average valuations across all stages have risen significantly this year, largely because of AI startups, but also because the venture ecosystem has rebounded as a whole. Down rounds — where a company raises at a lower valuation than a previous round — are declining and account for the lowest proportion of overall deals since late 2022.

➨ TAKEAWAY: There are pros and cons to rising valuations, which are good for founders and early investors, but require even higher valuations upon exit to provide positive returns. The rise makes it more difficult for smaller startups to fundraise and for smaller venture firms to compete with the bigger players. Valuations should only continue to grow as interest rates trend down and more exit activity leads to greater liquidity. Investors should still be watchful for signs of a bubble and be careful of frothy valuations.

🗽 Government shutdown ends: A day after the Senate, the House approved a bill that will fund the government and with President Trump’s signature will end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The bill only extends funding through the end of January, when this could all happen again.

🪙 DAT inflows collapse: Weekly inflows to digital asset treasuries (DATs), companies that buy and hold crypto tokens as reserves, have fallen by more than 95% since July, and share prices of the companies are declining at a greater rate than the digital assets they hold. Strategy, the most prominent DAT, has seen its stock price fall 44.5% in the past six months, even as Bitcoin’s price is essentially flat in that time period.

🚀 Robinhood’s retail fund: The trading platform is planning to allow retail investors to buy and sell shares of a new fund managed by its Robinhood Ventures subsidiary that will invest in top AI startups.

🎨 Bob Ross auctions: Three paintings by the legendary public television personality sold for more than $600,000 in total, four times the pre-sale estimate, in an auction to raise funds for public broadcasting. More paintings by Ross will be auctioned in January and the rest of next year.

💵 Neuberger private credit fund: The investment management firm announced that it has raised a $7.3 billion private credit fund, slightly less than its previous $8.1 billion fund from 2022.

🏢 Sonder bankruptcy: The short-term rentals company that had once been valued at nearly $2 billion has shut down and will file for bankruptcy, after its licensing agreement with Marriott was terminated.

The younger you are, the more likely you are to be an AI user. More than 80% of Gen Z adults say that they have used an AI chatbot, compared to just 33% of Boomers, with Gen X (54%) and Millennials (66%) in between. Additionally, Gen Z is more likely to be a frequent user of AI, with 47% of users doing so every day or “frequently", compared to Boomers, of whom only 21% of users report the same. How common and how frequent the usage is could be a cause for concern with new studies showing that those who rely on AI chatbots perform worse on cognitive tasks. The theory for where “brain rot” comes from is that because users are essentially outsourcing the effort of thinking to chatbots they do not end up learning or retaining any knowledge. The long-term effects of using AI to perform cognitive tasks are not clear, but short-term results certainly are not encouraging.