History

Over 50 Year History of Building Businesses

To this day, we continue to fulfill our founders', George Rand and Don Ross, original mission of investing in and assisting entrepreneurs.

1960s

Rand Capital Corporation was founded in 1969 by George Rand and Don Ross, with the mission to invest in and assist entrepreneurs.

1970s

A founding member of Nasdaq, the Company went public through an Initial Public Offering in 1971.

1990s

Don Ross continued to lead the company until 1996, when Allen "Pete" Grum was named President. Mr. Grum subsequently recruited Daniel P. Penberthy as Executive Vice President. Rand raised $2.2 million of equity capital in 1997.

2000s

In 2001, the Company elected to become a Business Development Company (BDC) and Margaret Brechtel joined as Vice President of Finance.

In 2016, we had our largest exit in Rand's history, realizing gross proceeds of approximately $15.2 million form the sale of Gemcor.

In 2019, we announced the closing of a transaction with East Asset Management (“EAM”). The transaction included a $25 million strategic investment in Rand by EAM, in exchange for approximately 8.3 million shares of Rand common stock. Rand Capital also added two new board directors, Adam Gusky, Chief Investment Officer of EAM, and Ben Godley, Chief Executive Officer of Contributor Development Partnership (“CDP”).

In 2020, we paid a special dividend of $23.7 million, or $1.62 per share, in a combination of cash and stock to shareholders; executed a 1:9 reverse stock split in May; and declared the 2020 dividend of $1.33 per share in December, which consisted of $0.39 per share from net investment income and $0.94 per share from capital gains. This dividend was paid in January 2021.

In February 2021, we announced our first regular dividend of $0.10 per share for the first quarter of 2021.

In April 2022, Cari Jaroslawsky was elected to the Board of Directors