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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

For the quarter ended March 31, 2012

For the Transition Period from              to            

Commission File Number: 814-00235

Rand Capital Corporation

(Exact Name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)

(716) 853-0802

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes  ¨    No    x

As of May 1, 2012 there were 6,818,934 shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding.

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RAND CAPITAL CORPORATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR FORM 10-Q

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PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

RAND CAPITAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION

As of March 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011

See accompanying notes

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RAND CAPITAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2012 and 2011

(Unaudited)

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See accompanying notes

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RAND CAPITAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2012 and 2011

(Unaudited)

See accompanying notes

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RAND CAPITAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN NET ASSETS

For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2012 and 2011

(Unaudited)

See accompanying notes

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RAND CAPITAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED SCHEDULE OF PORTFOLIO INVESTMENTS

March 31, 2012

(Unaudited)

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RAND CAPITAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED SCHEDULE OF PORTFOLIO INVESTMENTS

March 31, 2012 (Continued)

(Unaudited)

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RAND CAPITAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED SCHEDULE OF PORTFOLIO INVESTMENTS

March 31, 2012 (Continued)

(Unaudited)

Notes to Consolidated Schedule of Portfolio Investments

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Rand Capital Corporation and Subsidiary

Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements

For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2012 and 2011

(Unaudited)

Note 1. ORGANIZATION

Rand Capital Corporation (“Rand”) was incorporated under the laws of New York in 1969. Beginning in 1971, Rand operated as a publicly traded, closed-end, diversified management company that was registered under Section 8 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “1940 Act”). In 2001 Rand elected to be treated as a business development company (“BDC”) under the 1940 Act. In 2002, Rand formed a wholly-owned subsidiary for the purpose of operating it as a small business investment company (“SBIC”) licensed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”). The subsidiary received an SBA license to operate as an SBIC in August 2002. The subsidiary, which had been organized as a Delaware limited partnership, was converted into a New York corporation on December 31, 2008, at which time its operations as a licensed small business investment company were continued by the newly formed corporation under the name of Rand Capital SBIC, Inc. (“Rand SBIC”). The following discussion describes the operations of Rand and its wholly-owned subsidiary Rand SBIC (collectively, the “Corporation”).

The Corporation is listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol “Rand”.

SBIC Subsidiary

Since 2002, Rand has operated a wholly-owned SBIC subsidiary in order to have access to the various forms of leverage provided by the SBA to SBICs. Rand operates Rand SBIC, and Rand formerly operated the limited partnership SBIC predecessor of Rand SBIC, for the same investment purposes and with investments in the same kinds of securities as Rand. The operations of the SBIC predecessor were, and the operations of Rand SBIC are, consolidated with those of Rand for both financial reporting and tax purposes.

In 2002 Rand and the predecessor SBIC subsidiary filed an initial Exemption Application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking an order for a number of operating exemptions that the SEC has commonly granted from certain restrictions under the 1940 Act that would otherwise limit the operations of the wholly-owned subsidiary. After the filing of the Exemption Application, the Corporation had extensive discussions with the staff of the Division of Investment Management of the SEC concerning the application. The principal substantive issue in these discussions was the structure of the predecessor of Rand SBIC as a limited partnership.

Rand formed the predecessor SBIC in 2002 as a limited partnership because that was the organizational form that the SBA strongly encouraged for all new entities seeking licenses as SBICs. Rand organized the SBIC subsidiary in a manner that was consistent with the SBA’s model limited partnership forms for licensed SBICs. In that structure, the general partner of Rand SBIC was a limited liability company whose managers were the principal executive officers of Rand.

Under the rules and interpretations of the SEC applicable to BDCs (which the subsidiary SBIC intended to become), if a BDC is structured in limited partnership form, then it must have general partners who serve as a board of directors, or a general partner with very limited authority and a separate board of directors, all of the persons who serve on the board of directors must be natural persons, and a majority of the directors must not be “interested persons” of the BDC. Since the managers of the limited liability company general partner of the SBIC subsidiary were the principal executive officers of Rand, and since both the limited liability company general partner and the subsidiary SBIC were wholly-owned by Rand, Rand believed that the board of directors of Rand was the functional equivalent of a board of directors for both the general partner limited liability company and for the SBIC limited partnership. Nevertheless, the staff of the Division of Investment Management of the SEC maintained the view that if the limited partnership subsidiary was to be operated as a limited partnership BDC in compliance with the 1940 Act, then the organizational documents of the limited partnership would have to specifically provide that it would have a board of directors consisting of natural persons, a majority of whom would not be “interested persons.”

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With the approval of the SBA, effective December 31, 2008, Rand merged the Rand SBIC limited partnership into a new corporation whose board of directors is the same as that of Rand. The SBA formally approved the re-licensing of the new corporation as an SBIC in February 2009. As a result of the merger, Rand SBIC is a wholly-owned corporate subsidiary of Rand, and its board of directors is comprised of the directors of Rand, a majority of whom are not “interested persons” of Rand or Rand SBIC.

Following this merger, in February 2009, the Corporation filed a new Exemption Application with the SEC, which was amended in August 2009, September 2011, and again in January 2012 in response to comments from the Staff of the SEC. As amended, the Exemption Application sought an order under Sections 6(c), 12(d)(1)(J) and 57(c) of the 1940 Act for exemptions from the application of Sections 12(d)(1)(A) and (C), 18(a), 21(b), 57(a)(1) through (3), and 61(a) of the 1940 Act, and under Section 57(i) of the 1940 Act and Rule 17d-1 under the 1940 Act to permit certain joint transactions that would otherwise be prohibited by Section 57(a)(4) of the 1940 Act, but which would not be prohibited if Rand and Rand SBIC were a single entity. The application also sought an order under Section 12(h) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Act (the “Exchange Act”) for an exemption from separate reporting requirements for Rand SBIC under Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. In general, the Corporation’s application sought exemptions that would permit:

On February 1, 2012, the SEC issued Release No. 29941 thereby giving notice of application for the grant of an order permitting the joint operations of Rand and Rand SBIC under the exemptions from the provisions of the 1940 Act described above in the Exemption Application. On February 28, 2012, the SEC granted an Order of Exemption for Rand with respect to the operations of Rand SBIC.

At that time, although Rand SBIC was operated as if it were a BDC, it was registered as an investment company under the 1940 Act. Upon the Corporation’s receipt of the order granting the exemptions described above, on March 28, 2012, Rand SBIC filed an election to be regulated as a BDC under the 1940 Act.

Note 2. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of Presentation—In Management’s opinion, the accompanying consolidated financial statements include all adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the consolidated financial position, results of operations, and cash flows for the interim periods presented. Certain information and note disclosures normally included in audited annual financial statements prepared in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) have been omitted; however, the Corporation believes that the disclosures made are adequate to make the information presented not misleading. The interim results for the three months ending March 31, 2012 are not necessarily indicative of the results for the full year.

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These statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes included in the Corporation’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011. Information contained in this filing should also be reviewed in conjunction with the Corporation’s related filings with the SEC prior to the date of this report. Those filings include, but are not limited to, the following:

The Corporation’s website is www.randcapital.com. The Corporation’s annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, charters for the Corporation’s Board committees and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) are available through the Corporation’s website.

Principles of Consolidation—The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Rand and its wholly-owned subsidiary Rand SBIC. All intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Reclassification – Certain prior year income statement amounts have been reclassified to comply with regulatory rules.

Cash and Cash Equivalents—Temporary cash investments having a maturity of three months or less when purchased are considered to be cash equivalents.

Revenue Recognition—Interest Income—Interest income generally is recognized on the accrual basis except where the investment is in default or otherwise presumed to be in doubt. In such cases, interest is recognized at the time of receipt. A reserve for possible losses on interest receivable is maintained when appropriate.

The Rand SBIC interest accrual is also regulated by the SBA’s “Accounting Standards and Financial Reporting Requirements for Small Business Investment Companies.” Under these rules interest income cannot be recognized if collection is doubtful, and a 100% reserve must be established. The collection of interest is presumed to be in doubt when there is substantial doubt about a portfolio company’s ability to continue as a going concern or the loan is in default more than 120 days. Management also uses other qualitative and quantitative measures to determine the value of a portfolio investment and the collectability of any accrued interest.

Revenue Recognition—Dividend Income – The Corporation may receive distributions from portfolio companies that are limited liability companies and corporations and these distributions are classified as dividend income on the statement of operations. Dividend income is recognized on an accrual basis when it can be reasonably estimated.

Original Issue Discount – Investments may include “original issue discount” or OID income. This occurs when the Corporation purchases a warrant and a note from a portfolio company simultaneously, which requires an allocation of a portion of the purchase price to the warrant and reduces the note or debt instrument by an equal amount in the form of a note discount or OID. The note is reported net of the OID and the OID is accreted into interest income over the life of the loan. The Corporation recorded no OID income for the three months ended March 31, 2012. The Corporation recognized $2,467 in OID income for the three months ended March 31, 2011.

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Deferred Debenture Costs—SBA debenture origination and commitment costs, which are included in other assets, are amortized ratably over the terms of the SBA debentures and are expensed when the debt is repaid. Amortization expense for the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011 was $55,854 and $8,622, respectively.

SBA Leverage – The Corporation has $900,000 in outstanding SBA leverage at March 31, 2012 and $4,000,000 at December 31, 2011 with maturities commencing in 2020. The total remaining SBA commitment at March 31, 2012 is $8,000,000. This outstanding leverage commitment expires on September 30, 2016.

Net Assets per Share—Net assets per share are based on the number of shares of common stock outstanding. There are no common stock equivalents.

Supplemental Cash Flow Information—Income taxes paid (refunded) during the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011 amounted to $300 and ($448,227), respectively. Interest paid during the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011 amounted to $105,104 and $275,590 respectively. The Corporation converted $25,193 and $23,736 of interest receivable into investments during the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively.

Accounting Estimates—The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Stockholders’ Equity (Net Assets)—At March 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, there were 500,000 shares of $10.00 par value preferred stock authorized and unissued.

The Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of up to 340,946 shares of the Corporation’s outstanding common stock on the open market through October 28, 2012 at prices that are no greater than current net asset value. During 2003 and 2002 the Corporation purchased 44,100 shares of its stock for $47,206. No additional shares have been repurchased since 2003.

Profit Sharing and Stock Option Plan—In 2001 the stockholders of the Corporation authorized the establishment of an Employee Stock Option Plan (the “Option Plan”). The Option Plan provides for the award of options to purchase up to 200,000 common shares to eligible employees. In 2002, the Corporation placed the Option Plan on inactive status as it developed a new profit sharing plan for the Corporation’s employees in connection with the formation of its SBIC subsidiary. As of March 31, 2012, no stock options had been awarded under the Option Plan. Because Section 57(n) of the 1940 Act prohibits maintenance of a profit sharing plan for the officers and employees of a BDC where any option, warrant or right is outstanding under an executive compensation plan, no options will be granted under the Option Plan while any profit sharing plan is in effect with respect to the Corporation.

In 2002, the Corporation established a Profit Sharing Plan (the “Plan”) for its executive officers in accordance with Section 57(n) of the 1940 Act. Under the Plan, the Corporation will pay its executive officers aggregate profit sharing payments equal to 12% of the net realized capital gains of its SBIC subsidiary, net of all realized capital losses and unrealized depreciation of the SBIC subsidiary, for the fiscal year, computed in accordance with the Plan and the Corporation’s interpretation of the Plan. Any profit sharing paid or accrued cannot exceed 20% of the Corporation’s net income, as defined. The profit sharing payments will be split equally between the Corporation’s two executive officers, who are fully vested in the Plan.

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There were no amounts earned pursuant to the Plan for the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2010, the Corporation approved and accrued $584,634 under the profit sharing plan, of which $531,602 was paid during the three months ended March 31, 2011. The remaining $15,940 accrued at March 31, 2012 is related to an escrow receivable and will be paid when the escrow is collected.

Income Taxes—The Corporation reviews the tax positions it has taken to determine if they meet a “more likely than not threshold” for the benefit of the tax position to be recognized in the financial statements. A tax position that fails to meet the more likely than not recognition threshold will result in the recording of either a reduction of an income tax receivable or a deferred tax asset, or an income tax payable or a deferred tax liability.

There have been no changes in liabilities recorded for uncertain tax positions in the first three months of 2012 and the Corporation does not expect that the amounts of uncertain tax positions will change significantly within the next 12 months.

It is the Corporation’s policy to include interest and penalties related to income tax liabilities in income tax expense. There were no amounts recognized for interest or penalties related to unrecognized tax expense for the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011.

The Corporation is currently open to audit under the statute of limitations by the Internal Revenue Service for the years ending December 31, 2008 through 2011. In general, the Corporation’s state income tax returns are open to audit under the statute of limitations for the years ended December 31, 2007 through 2011.

Concentration of Credit and Market Risk – The Corporation’s financial instruments potentially subject it to concentrations of credit risk. Cash is invested with banks in amounts which, at times, exceed insurable limits. Management does not anticipate non-performance by the banks.

At March 31, 2012 Gemcor II, LLC (Gemcor), Synacor Inc. (Synacor), Microcision, LLC (Microcision) and Carolina Skiff LLC (Carolina Skiff) represent 30%, 24%, 7% and 6%, respectively, of the fair value of the Corporation’s investment portfolio.

Subsequent Events – Subsequent to March 31, 2012 the Corporation made four investments totaling $1,075,000 and drew down $1,000,000 in SBA leverage.

Note 3. INVESTMENTS

Investments are valued at fair value as determined in good faith by the management of the Corporation and submitted to the Board of Directors for approval. The Corporation invests in loan instruments, debt instruments, and equity instruments. There is no single standard for determining fair value in good faith. As a result, determining fair value requires that judgment be applied to the specific facts and circumstances of each portfolio investment while employing a consistent valuation process for each investment. The Corporation analyzes and values each investment quarterly, and records unrealized depreciation for an investment that it believes has become impaired, including where collection of a loan or realization of the recorded value of an equity security is doubtful. Conversely, the Corporation will record unrealized appreciation if it believes that an underlying portfolio company has appreciated in value and, therefore, its equity security has also appreciated in value. These estimated fair values may differ from the values that would have been used had a ready market for the investments existed and these differences could be material if our assumptions and judgments differ from results of actual liquidation events.

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On January 1, 2008 the Corporation adopted Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 820, “fair value measurements and disclosures”, which defines fair value, establishes a framework for measuring fair value in GAAP, and expands disclosures about fair value measurements.

Loan investments are defined as traditional loan financings with no equity features. Debt investments are defined as debt financings that include one or more equity features such as conversion rights, stock purchase warrants, and/or stock purchase options. A financing may also be categorized as a debt financing if it is accompanied by the direct purchase of an equity interest in the company.

The Corporation uses several approaches to determine the fair value of an investment. The main approaches are:

The loan and debt securities may also be valued at an amount other than the price the security would command in order to provide a yield to maturity equivalent to the current yield of similar debt securities. A loan or debt instrument may be reduced in value if it is judged to be of poor quality, collection is in doubt or insufficient liquidation proceeds exist.

ASC 820 classifies the inputs used to measure fair value into the following hierarchy:

Level 1: Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities, used in the Corporation’s valuation at the measurement date.

Level 2: Quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets, or quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not active, or other observable inputs other than quoted prices.

Level 3: Unobservable and significant inputs to determining the fair value.

Financial assets and liabilities are classified in their entirety based on the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement, which is not necessarily an indication of risks associated with the investment.

Any changes in estimated fair value are recorded in our statement of operations as “Net increase (decrease) in unrealized appreciation.”

Under the valuation policy, the Corporation values unrestricted publicly held securities at the closing bid price for these securities for the last three trading days of the month. Restricted publicly held securities are valued at the closing bid price for the last three trading days of the month and are discounted for the time restriction.

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In the valuation process, the Corporation values private securities using the financial information from these portfolio companies, which may include audited and unaudited financial statements, annual projections and budgets prepared by the portfolio company and other financial and non-financial business information supplied by the companies’ management. This information is used to determine financial condition, performance, and valuation of the portfolio companies. The valuation may be reduced if a company’s performance and potential have deteriorated significantly. If the factors which led to the reduction in valuation are overcome, the valuation may be restored.

Another key factor used in valuing equity investments is recent arms-length equity transactions with unrelated new investors entered into by the portfolio company. Many times the terms of these equity transactions may not be identical to the equity transactions between the portfolio company and the Corporation, and the impact of the discrepancy in transaction terms on the market value of the portfolio company may be difficult or impossible to quantify.

Assets Measured at Fair Value on a Recurring Basis

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Assets Measured at Fair Value on a Recurring Basis Using Significant Unobservable Inputs (Level 3)

(C) Transfer from level 3 to level 2 because observable market data became available for the security.

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