Note 1. ORGANIZATION

Rand Capital Corporation (“Rand”, “we”, “us” and “our”) was incorporated under the laws of New York in February 1969. We completed our initial public offering in 1971 and operated as an internally managed, closed end, management investment company from that time until November 2019.

In November 2019, Rand completed a stock sale transaction (the “Closing”) with East Asset Management (“East”). The transaction consisted of a $25 million investment in Rand by East, in the form of cash and contributed portfolio assets, in exchange for approximately 8.3 million shares of Rand common stock. East owns approximately 64% of Rand Capital’s outstanding common stock at September 30, 2023. Concurrent with the Closing, Rand Capital Management, LLC (“RCM”), a registered investment adviser, was retained by Rand as its external investment adviser and administrator (the Closing and the retention of RCM as our investment adviser and administrator are collectively referred to herein as the “Transaction”). The term of the new investment advisory and management agreement (the “Investment Management Agreement”) with RCM was extended after its renewal was approved by our Board of Directors (the “Board”) in October 2023 and is now set to expire December 31, 2024. In addition, the term of the administration agreement (the “Administration Agreement”) with RCM was extended after its renewal was approved by the Board in October 2023 and is now set to expire December 31, 2024. After December 31, 2024, the Investment Management Agreement and Administration Agreement will continue for successive annual periods provided that such continuance is specifically approved at least annually by (i)(A) the affirmative vote of a majority of the Board or (B) the affirmative vote of a majority of our outstanding voting securities, and (ii) the affirmative vote of a majority of our directors who are not “interested persons,” as defined in Section 2(a)(19) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the "1940 Act"), of us, RCM or our respective affiliates. Pursuant to the terms of the Investment Management Agreement, Rand pays RCM a base management fee and may pay an incentive fee, if specified benchmarks are met.

In connection with the Closing, we also entered into a shareholder agreement by and between Rand and East (the “Shareholder Agreement”). Pursuant to the terms of the Shareholder Agreement, East has the right to designate two or three persons, depending upon the size of the Board, for nomination for election to the Board. East has the right to designate (i) up to two persons if the size of the Board is composed of fewer than seven directors or (ii) up to three persons if the size of the Board is composed of seven or more directors. East’s right to designate persons for nomination for election to the Board under the Shareholder Agreement is the exclusive means by which East may designate or nominate persons for election to the Board. The Board currently consists of five directors, and East’s designees are Adam S. Gusky and Benjamin E. Godley.

We are an externally managed, closed-end, non-diversified investment company. We have elected to be regulated as a business development company (“BDC”) under the 1940 Act. As a BDC, we are required to comply with certain regulatory requirements specified in the 1940 Act. For instance, we generally have to invest at least 70% of our total assets in “qualifying assets” and provide managerial assistance to the portfolio companies in which we invest. See “Item 1. Business - Regulations, Business Development Company Regulations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Since the completion of the Transaction, we adopted an investment strategy focused on higher yielding debt investments and elected to be treated as a regulated investment company (“RIC”) for U.S. Federal income tax purposes as of January 1, 2020 on our U.S. Federal tax return for the 2020 tax year.

In order to continue to qualify as a RIC, Rand holds several of its equity investments in holding companies that facilitate a tax structure that is advantageous to the RIC election. Rand has the following wholly owned blocker subsidiaries in place at September 30, 2023: Rand BMP Swanson Holdings Corp., Rand Carolina Skiff Holdings Corp., Rand DSD Holdings Corp., Rand Filterworks Holdings Corp., Rand FSS Holdings Corp., Rand INEA Holdings Corp., Rand ITA Holdings Corp., and Rand Somerset Holdings Corp. (the “Blocker Corps”). These subsidiaries are consolidated using United States generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for financial reporting purposes.

On October 7, 2020, Rand, RCM and certain of their affiliates received an exemptive order for relief from the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to permit Rand to co-invest in portfolio companies with certain affiliates, including other BDCs and registered investment companies, managed by RCM and certain of its affiliates in a manner consistent with Rand’s investment objective, policies, strategies and restrictions as well as regulatory requirements, subject to compliance with certain conditions (the “Order”). On March 29, 2021, the SEC granted Rand, Callodine Group, LLC (“Callodine”), which holds a controlling interest in RCM, and certain of their affiliates a new exemptive order (the “New Order”) that superseded the Order and permits Rand to co-invest with affiliates managed by RCM and Callodine. Callodine is a yield focused asset management platform. Pursuant to the New Order, Rand is generally permitted to co-invest with affiliates covered by the New Order if a “required majority” (as defined in Section 57(o) of the 1940 Act) of Rand’s independent directors make certain conclusions in connection with a co-investment transaction, including that (1) the terms of the transaction, including the consideration to be paid, are reasonable and fair to Rand and its shareholders and do not involve overreaching of Rand or its shareholders on the part of any person concerned, (2) the transaction is consistent with the interests of Rand’s shareholders and is consistent with Rand’s investment objective and strategies and (3) the investment by Rand’s affiliates would not disadvantage Rand, and Rand’s participation would not be on a basis different from or less advantageous than that on which Rand’s affiliates are investing. In addition, on September 6, 2022, the SEC granted an amendment to the New Order to permit Rand to participate in follow-on investments in our existing portfolio companies with certain Affiliated Funds (as defined in the amended New Order) that do not hold any investments in such existing portfolio companies.

The accompanying consolidated financial statements describe the operations of Rand and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Rand Capital Sub, LLC ("Rand Sub") and the Blocker Corps (collectively, the “Corporation”).

Our corporate office is located in Buffalo, NY and our website address is www.randcapital.com. We make available on our website our annual and quarterly reports, proxy statements and other information as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Our shares are traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol “RAND.”