Notes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Development_Company

• A Business Development Company (“BDC”) is a form of unregistered closed-end investment company in the United States that invests in small and mid-sized businesses. This form of company was created to provide small and growing companies access to capital and to enable private equity funds to access public capital markets. A BDC must invest at least 70% of its assets in nonpublic US companies with market values of less than $250 million. Moreover, like REITs, as long as 90% or more of the BDC's income is distributed to investors, a BDC is not taxed at the corporate level.
• Some BDCs are publicly traded, while others are not.