Methodology

The coverage universe is unlisted (non-traded) business development companies (BDCs) registered with the SEC. These are closed-end funds that have elected BDC status under the Investment Company Act and invest primarily in private credit and equity.

Discovery

Unlisted BDCs are identified through three independent SEC data sources:

1. N-54A/N-54C elections -- BDCs that have elected or withdrawn BDC status with the SEC
2. 814- file numbers -- CIKs with Investment Company Act file numbers in the 814 series
3. SEC BDC data set -- CIKs appearing in the SEC's structured BDC data sets

Exclusions

Listed (publicly traded) BDCs are excluded. The unlisted BDC reference list is cross-validated against third-party sources. Consumer and marketplace lending vehicles with opaque individual loan IDs are excluded from the unified holdings outputs.

All data is sourced from SEC EDGAR. No voluntary manager surveys, no proprietary feeds. This eliminates selection bias and ensures complete coverage of the filing universe.

BDC XBRL (10-K/10-Q)

Business Development Companies file annual (10-K) and quarterly (10-Q) reports that include a Schedule of Investments in structured XBRL format. The SEC required inline XBRL tagging for BDC investment schedules starting in 2022-2023. Each position is tagged with fair value, cost, interest rate, maturity, and other attributes using a typed dimension (investmentIdentifierAxis).

Extraction

XBRL instance documents are downloaded and parsed. A concept mapping layer handles variations in XBRL taxonomies across filers. Rate harmonization converts BDC rates from decimal to percentage form. Per-CIK wrappers handle filer-specific XBRL variations.

The platform publishes fund-level analytics and portfolio characteristics derived from the extracted holdings:

• Portfolio characteristics -- Weighted average coupon, spread, and maturity with coverage disclosure
• Structural composition -- Lien position, rate type, and asset class breakdowns
• Manager concentration -- AUM share by adviser
• Fund-level performance -- NAV returns, distribution rates, leverage ratios
• Credit risk indicators -- PIK exposure, non-accrual rates, default flags where disclosed

All analytics are derived from the same mandatory filing data. Coverage gaps are disclosed inline (e.g., "86% coverage" next to weighted average coupon).

• Coverage starts ~2022 -- BDC XBRL tagging was phased in by the SEC starting in 2022. Pre-2022 filings are unstructured HTML.
• Quarterly frequency -- Holdings update quarterly, driven by the SEC filing cadence rather than daily market data.
• Fair value estimation -- Reported fair values reflect fund-level mark-to-model estimates, not market transaction prices.
• Survivorship -- Funds that de-register or stop filing drop out of coverage. The current universe includes only active filers.
• Incomplete field coverage -- Portfolio characteristics are based on positions where the filer disclosed the relevant data. Coverage rates are disclosed alongside each metric.