Form 1-E Files Dataset

The Form 1-E Files Dataset is a comprehensive corpus of every electronic Form 1-E and Form 1-E/A submission to EDGAR — the pre-offering notifications filed under Rule 604 of Regulation E by small business investment companies (SBICs) and business development companies (BDCs) that intend to rely on the Securities Act §3(b) exemption from registration. Each record is one accession-level submission packaged with a structured metadata.json sidecar and the verbatim original EDGAR documents (HTML, JSON, and TXT, with image binaries excluded). The dataset covers electronic filings from August 2002 to the present, distributed as monthly ZIP containers under the path form-1e-files/<year>/<year>-<month>.zip.

Dataset APIs

Dataset Files

What This Dataset Contains

The dataset is built around a single regulatory artifact: the Form 1-E notification filed under Rule 604 of Regulation E, an exemption from registration under the Securities Act of 1933 available to SBICs and BDCs for limited offerings of their securities. The form is a notification rather than a registration statement — it advises the SEC of an intended offering relying on the Reg E exemption and must be submitted at least ten business days before the initial offering or sale. The substantive content required by Form 1-E covers the identity of the issuer; identification of all affiliates and any record or beneficial owner of ten percent or more of any class of the issuer's outstanding securities; the jurisdictions in which the securities are proposed to be offered; a description of the offering; copies of the instruments defining the rights of the security holders; and the signature of an authorized officer.

Form 1-E/A is the amendment variant, used to update or correct a previously filed Form 1-E, and typically restates only the items being amended rather than the full notification. Because the eligible issuer population is narrow and Reg E offerings are themselves uncommon, the universe of Form 1-E filings is small and individual records tend to be compact document sets. Both initial Form 1-E notifications and Form 1-E/A amendments are included; they coexist in the same monthly containers and are distinguished only by the formType field. The dataset is delivered as monthly ZIP containers; per-record contents are HTML, JSON, and TXT files preserved in their original EDGAR submission form, with image binaries (JPG, GIF, PNG) deliberately excluded from the dataset packaging.

Content Structure of a Single Record

What one record represents

One record in the Form 1-E Files Dataset is a single Form 1-E or Form 1-E/A submission to EDGAR, identified by its 18-digit SEC accession number. Physically, the record is materialized as one accession-level folder containing a metadata.json sidecar and the verbatim original EDGAR documents associated with that submission, excluding image binaries. The record therefore packages a single Regulation E notification event as two complementary layers: a structured machine-readable description of the filing and the unmodified documents EDGAR received from the filer. Records are grouped into monthly ZIP containers under the path form-1e-files/<year>/<year>-<month>.zip, with each accession folder named using the dash-stripped accession number (for example 000152137313000006/).

Container and accession-folder layout

The internal layout of one record inside its monthly container is uniform:

• The container is form-1e-files/<year>/<year>-<month>.zip.
• Inside the container, a single top-level directory named <year>-<month>/ holds all accession folders for that month.
• Each accession folder is named with the 18-digit no-dash accession number.
• Each accession folder contains exactly one metadata.json plus one or more original EDGAR documents under their original submitted filenames.

Original EDGAR filenames are preserved verbatim and not renormalized (for example a filer's submission text may appear as formadv-e.txt, with no path rewriting). The file types found in the dataset are HTML, JSON, and TXT: JSON for the metadata sidecar, TXT for SGML-wrapped submission text files and exhibits filed in plain text, and HTML for primary documents and exhibits filed as marked-up text. Image binaries (JPG, GIF, PNG) that may have been part of the original EDGAR submission are deliberately excluded from the dataset packaging.

The metadata.json sidecar

Each record carries one metadata.json describing the filing in structured form. Its top-level fields capture filing identity and document inventory:

• formType — the EDGAR form code, either 1-E or 1-E/A.
• accessionNo — the dashed EDGAR accession number, for example 0001521373-13-000006.
• description — a short human-readable label such as Form 1-E - Notification [Regulation E].
• filedAt — the EDGAR acceptance timestamp as an ISO-8601 string with timezone offset.
• linkToFilingDetails — a direct URL to the primary document on SEC.gov.
• linkToTxt — a URL to the complete submission text file on SEC.gov.
• linkToHtml — a URL to the EDGAR filing index page (...-index.htm).
• linkToXbrl — present for schema consistency; routinely an empty string for Form 1-E.
• id — an internal hex identifier for the record.
• documentFormatFiles — an array enumerating every document attached to the submission. Each entry carries sequence (document order within the submission, with the whole-submission entry using a single space), size (byte size as a string), documentUrl (URL to that document on SEC.gov), description (such as ADV-E or Complete submission text file), and type (the document type code; this mirrors formType for the primary document and is blank for the complete-submission text).
• entities — an array of filer entities involved in the submission. Each entity object includes companyName with a parenthesized role suffix such as (Filer), the cik (Central Index Key), the entity-level type (filing role/form code), irsNo (IRS Employer Identification Number), fileNo (SEC file number), filmNo (SEC film number), act (the Act under which the filing is made, for example 40 for the Investment Company Act of 1940), stateOfIncorporation (two-letter state code), and fiscalYearEnd (MMDD string).
• seriesAndClassesContractsInformation — an array reserved for fund series/class identifiers when applicable; typically empty for Form 1-E because these notifications are issuer-level rather than registered-fund-series filings.
• dataFiles — an array reserved for ancillary data files when EDGAR provides them; routinely empty for Form 1-E.

The original EDGAR submission documents

In addition to the metadata sidecar, each record preserves the verbatim documents EDGAR received. These documents follow the standard EDGAR SGML document envelope, with each logical document framed inside a <DOCUMENT> block carrying header tags and a <TEXT> body:

          1
          <DOCUMENT>
        

          2
          <TYPE>1-E
        

          3
          <SEQUENCE>1
        

          4
          <FILENAME>formadv-e.txt
        

          5
          <DESCRIPTION>ADV-E
        

          6
          <TEXT>
        

          7
          ... document body ...
        

          8
          </TEXT>
        

          9
          </DOCUMENT>
        

The header tags carry the document type (<TYPE>, mirroring documentFormatFiles[i].type), the sequence number within the submission (<SEQUENCE>), the original submitted filename (<FILENAME>), and a short description (<DESCRIPTION>). The body inside <TEXT> is either plain ASCII text (older filings and Form ADV-E style certificates) or HTML markup (more recent filings and richly formatted exhibits). A submission can contain a single <DOCUMENT> block (when the filer submits only the primary form) or multiple <DOCUMENT> blocks (when the filer attaches exhibits such as instruments defining the rights of security holders, lists of affiliates, or jurisdictional schedules).

Section-by-section content of the Form 1-E body

The substantive content of the Form 1-E body is organized around the disclosures required by Rule 604 of Regulation E. Within the primary document and any accompanying exhibits, the following information layers typically appear in roughly this order:

• Issuer identification block — the legal name of the issuer, principal business address, state of incorporation, IRS Employer Identification Number, and SEC file number. The same identifiers are also surfaced in metadata.json under entities.
• Affiliate and significant-holder identification — a listing of all affiliates of the issuer and any person who is the record or beneficial owner of ten percent or more of any class of the issuer's outstanding securities, together with the nature of the affiliation or holding.
• Jurisdictional schedule — the states, territories, or other jurisdictions in which the securities are proposed to be offered or sold under the Reg E exemption.
• Offering description — identification of the class of securities to be offered, the aggregate offering amount, and any related transactional structure relevant to the Reg E exemption.
• Holder-rights instruments — copies of the instruments defining the rights of the security holders, typically charter documents, indentures, partnership agreements, subscription agreements, or similar instruments, attached as exhibits inside additional <DOCUMENT> blocks.
• Signature and execution block — the signature of an authorized officer of the issuer, the signatory's title, and the date of execution.

For Form 1-E/A amendments, the same section structure applies but the content is restricted to the items being amended; the amendment generally restates only affected sections rather than the entire notification.

Form ADV-E overlap

Some Form 1-E filings are prepared on the Form ADV-E template — a certificate of accounting used in the investment-adviser custody examination regime under Rule 206(4)-2 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. This overlap reflects the fact that some SBICs and BDCs that file Form 1-E are also subject to the adviser custody examination requirements, and the EDGAR submission can route through an ADV-E primary document. Where this occurs, the <TEXT> body of the primary document contains the Form ADV-E certification text — issuer name and address, SEC file number, IRS number, examination date, and Rule 206(4)-2 instructions — rather than the canonical Reg E notification narrative. Downstream extraction should therefore not assume a single canonical body layout for Form 1-E records.

What is included in a record

A record bundles, for one accession number:

• The structured metadata.json describing filing identity, timestamps, links, document inventory, and filer entity attributes.
• All original EDGAR documents in the submission, in their original filenames and original SGML envelopes, including the primary form document and any text or HTML exhibits.

What is excluded from a record

The following are not included in the dataset packaging:

• Image binaries (JPG, GIF, PNG) that may have been part of the original submission. Where a filing referenced inline images, those binaries are omitted from the accession folder.
• Materials that are merely incorporated by reference rather than physically attached to the EDGAR submission. Where an exhibit is incorporated by reference to another filing, only the reference text appears in the record; the referenced document itself does not.
• Any documents EDGAR did not receive as part of the submission — adjacent filings by the same issuer, related correspondence, or staff comment letters live in their own EDGAR submissions and are not bundled here.

Format evolution and structural stability

Form 1-E filings have been available on EDGAR from August 2002 onward, and the underlying submission format has tracked the broader EDGAR transition from plain-text to HTML-based primary documents. Earlier records are dominated by ASCII text bodies wrapped in the SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope, while more recent records frequently carry HTML primary documents and HTML exhibits. The SGML envelope itself, the accession-folder naming convention, and the metadata.json schema are consistent across the entire date range, so a single extraction approach — read metadata.json for structured identity and document inventory, then walk each <DOCUMENT> block in the original submission text — works uniformly across vintages. The substantive disclosure requirements under Rule 604 have remained stable in their core elements, so section-level content expectations do not vary materially across the covered period.

Interpretation and extraction notes

• The entities[i].companyName field carries a parenthesized role suffix such as (Filer), useful when multiple entities appear on a submission and the filer must be distinguished from any subject company.
• The documentFormatFiles array always contains a complete-submission text entry as a separate row from the primary document; that row has a single-space sequence, a blank type, and points at the EDGAR composite text file rather than at any individual <DOCUMENT> block.
• Form 1-E/A amendments are interleaved with initial Form 1-E filings inside the same monthly containers and are distinguishable only via the formType field. Joining an amendment to its underlying initial notification requires matching on filer identifiers (CIK, SEC file number) rather than on accession number, since each amendment receives a fresh accession number.
• File-level boundaries inside the SGML envelope are marked by <DOCUMENT> and </DOCUMENT> tags rather than MIME boundaries. HTML bodies inside <TEXT> may contain their own <HTML>, <HEAD>, and <BODY> tags, so parsers must respect the outer SGML framing before treating inner content as standalone HTML.
• Header tags such as <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION> inside the SGML envelope are not closed; they terminate at end-of-line. Tag-aware parsing should treat them as line-oriented rather than as fully balanced XML.
• Because Form 1-E primary documents may be filed on either the Reg E narrative format or the ADV-E certificate template, narrative-section extractors should branch on body content (or on the <DESCRIPTION> value) rather than assuming a single document schema.
• The dataset is small in absolute terms because the population of Reg E notifications is narrow, and individual records are themselves compact, often consisting of a single primary document with no exhibits. Records spanning multiple <DOCUMENT> blocks indicate either attached holder-rights instruments or amendment exhibits and should be walked sequentially.

Who Files or Publishes Form 1-E and When

Each record in the Form 1-E Files Dataset is a single EDGAR submission of a Form 1-E notification or a Form 1-E/A amendment. The filer is always the issuer of the securities — specifically, an SBIC or a BDC that intends to rely on the Regulation E exemption from registration under the Securities Act of 1933. Form 1-E is an issuer-side notification; underwriters, broker-dealers, and selling security holders do not file it.

Filing population

Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs). SBICs are privately organized investment companies licensed by the U.S. Small Business Administration under the Small Business Investment Act of 1958. They provide equity capital and long-term financing to small businesses, typically combining private capital with SBA-guaranteed leverage. Regulation E was originally designed to give SBICs a streamlined path to raise capital from the public.

Business Development Companies (BDCs). BDCs are a class of closed-end investment company defined in Section 2(a)(48)(B) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 that have elected to be regulated as a BDC under Section 54 of that Act. A BDC must invest primarily in eligible portfolio companies (generally domestic operating companies that are not themselves large reporting issuers) and must offer significant managerial assistance to those companies.

Entities that do not file Form 1-E. Form 1-E is not available to ordinary operating companies, registered open-end or closed-end funds that have not elected BDC status, ETFs, unit investment trusts, or foreign issuers. Operating-company small offerings use Regulation A (Form 1-A) or Regulation D (Form D); registered investment companies generally raise capital through Forms N-2, N-1A, or N-14. The SBIC/BDC limitation is set by Rule 602 of Regulation E.

Regulatory framework

Form 1-E sits within Section 3(b) of the Securities Act, which authorizes the SEC to exempt small offerings from Section 5 registration by rule. Regulation E (17 CFR 230.601–230.610) is the SEC's exemptive regulation for SBICs and BDCs:

• Rule 601 — definitions
• Rule 602 — eligible issuers (SBICs and BDCs)
• Rule 603 — the Section 5 exemption for qualifying offerings
• Rule 604 — notification on Form 1-E
• Rule 605 — aggregate offering price ceiling of $5,000,000 in any 12-month period
• Rules 606–610 — offering circular content, sales material, suspension of the exemption, and reports of sales

Rule 604 is the operative provision for every record in this dataset. It requires the issuer to file a notification on Form 1-E identifying the issuer, its affiliates, any holders of ten percent or more of any class of its outstanding equity securities, the jurisdictions in which the securities will be offered, and the instruments defining the rights of the securities being offered, together with the offering circular and related exhibits.

Because Regulation E is an exemption from Section 5 registration, no Form S-1, S-3, or N-2 is filed for these offerings. Form 1-E is the principal EDGAR filing through which the SEC and the public learn of the offering. Subsequent sales are reported on Form 2-E, which is a separate filing regime not included in this dataset.

Triggering events and timing

Original Form 1-E notification. The trigger is the issuer's intention to commence a Regulation E offering. Rule 604 requires the notification to be filed at least ten business days before the date of the initial offering or sale. The filing is pre-offering — not an after-the-fact event report and not a periodic disclosure tied to a fiscal calendar. The ten-business-day window functions as a mandatory waiting interval during which the SEC may review the notification, the offering circular, and the exhibits.

Form 1-E/A amendments. A Form 1-E/A is filed to correct, update, or supplement a previously filed Form 1-E — for example, to revise offering terms, add newly identified affiliates or ten-percent holders, add jurisdictions, or amend the instruments defining security holder rights. Amendments are submitted through the same EDGAR filing system and are linked to the original notification by the issuer's CIK.

Event-driven, not periodic. Form 1-E is event-driven. It is not tied to a fiscal year-end and is not required annually. A given SBIC or BDC may file once, multiple times across separate offerings, or never. The total record count reflects both the narrow eligible filer population and the limited use of the Regulation E exemption.

Filing mechanics and EDGAR flow

Form 1-E and Form 1-E/A are filed electronically through EDGAR using the issuer's assigned access codes. Each submission receives an accession number and includes a primary document, the exhibits required by Rule 604 (offering circular, instruments defining security holder rights, and related documents), and EDGAR header metadata. Filings become publicly available once accepted. The dataset covers electronic Form 1-E and Form 1-E/A submissions on EDGAR from August 2002 to the present. Earlier paper filings predate EDGAR's electronic archive and are not included.

Important distinctions and edge cases

• The legal filer is the issuer (SBIC or BDC), not the SBA, the issuer's investment adviser, or any selling security holder. Affiliates and ten-percent holders are named within the filing but do not file it themselves.
• Form 1-E is distinct from Form 1-A, the Regulation A notification used by operating-company issuers. The two regulations apply to different issuer classes and have different ceilings and disclosure requirements.
• Form 1-E is distinct from Form 2-E, the post-commencement sales report filed by Regulation E issuers. Form 2-E filings are not in this dataset.
• A Form 1-E/A does not by itself restart the ten-business-day waiting period unless the Commission requires it; it supplements rather than replaces the original notification.
• Withdrawals of a Form 1-E are processed through a separate withdrawal request and do not generate a Form 1-E record in this dataset.
• Regulation E exempts the offering from Section 5 registration but not from antifraud liability. Disclosures in Form 1-E and its exhibits remain subject to Securities Act Section 17(a) and Exchange Act Rule 10b-5.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form 1-E sits at the intersection of two narrow regimes: Securities Act §3(b) small-offering exemptions and the specialized disclosure framework for SBICs and BDCs. Because Regulation E is rarely used relative to Regulations A and D, the most useful comparisons are forms that overlap in statutory authority, filer population, or offering mechanics — not generic "small-issuer notices."

Form 2-E — periodic Reg E sales report

Form 2-E is the direct in-regulation counterpart to Form 1-E. Both arise under Rules 601–610 (Regulation E) implementing Securities Act §3(b), and both are filed by SBICs and BDCs in the same offering.

• Trigger: Form 1-E is a one-time pre-offering notification (with 1-E/A amendments); Form 2-E is filed semi-annually while the offering is open and after termination.
• Content: Form 1-E carries issuer identification, affiliate and 10% holder disclosure, jurisdictional offering plans, and exhibits defining security-holder rights. Form 2-E reports actual sales volumes, gross proceeds, and use of proceeds.
• Relationship: Sequential within one offering lifecycle, not substitutes.

Form 1-A — Regulation A / Reg A+ offering statement

The most common point of confusion. Both Reg A and Reg E are §3(b)-class exemptions filed before sales begin, but they target different issuers and use different ceilings.

• Filer population: Form 1-A is for operating companies (U.S. and Canadian non-reporting issuers). Form 1-E is restricted to SBICs and BDCs — registered investment vehicles, not operating businesses.
• Offering caps: Reg A+ Tier 1 permits up to $20M and Tier 2 up to $75M per 12 months. Reg E is capped at $5M per 12 months with no tier structure.
• Review: Form 1-A must be qualification by SEC staff before sales. Form 1-E is a notification — sales may begin ten business days after filing, with no qualification step.
• Volume: Form 1-A filings run in the thousands; Form 1-E is rare.

Form 1-K, 1-SA, 1-U — Reg A continuing reporting

These forms share only the "1-" prefix with Form 1-E and are sometimes wrongly grouped with it.

• Statutory basis: They exist solely under Reg A Tier 2 ongoing reporting (Rule 257). They have no role under Reg E.
• Function: Post-qualification continuing disclosure (annual, semi-annual, current event). Form 1-E is a one-time pre-offering notice.
• Filer overlap: None — Reg A Tier 2 issuers file 1-K/1-SA/1-U; Reg E SBICs/BDCs do not.

Form D — Regulation D private placement notice

Form D is the most-cited "exempt-offering notice" comparison, but the offering character and timing are reversed.

• Statutory basis: Reg D rests on §4(a)(2) and §3(b) safe harbors for private placements (Rules 504, 506(b), 506(c)). Reg E is a distinct §3(b) exemption limited to SBICs/BDCs.
• Offering character: Reg D offerings are private placements, generally to accredited investors, with solicitation restrictions outside Rule 506(c). Reg E offerings are public in character within the $5M cap.
• Timing: Form D is filed within 15 days after the first sale (post-sale). Form 1-E is filed at least ten business days before the first sale (pre-sale).
• Volume and population: Form D is filed by tens of thousands of issuers across all industries; Form 1-E only by SBICs/BDCs.
• Structure: Form D is highly coded; Form 1-E is narrative with attached governing instruments.

Form S-1 and Form N-2 — registered alternatives

S-1 (operating-company registration) and N-2 (closed-end fund and BDC registration) are the full §5 registration paths a BDC may take instead of Reg E.

• Registration vs exemption: S-1/N-2 register securities; Form 1-E claims an exemption.
• Disclosure depth: S-1/N-2 require prospectus-grade disclosure, audited financials, risk factors, and staff review. Form 1-E disclosure is materially lighter and not subject to qualification.
• BDC overlap: A BDC pursuing a registered public offering uses N-2; a BDC using the Reg E exemption uses Form 1-E. They are mutually exclusive choices for a given offering.
• Ongoing status: S-1/N-2 issuers typically become or remain Exchange Act reporting companies; Form 1-E does not by itself create that status.

Form ADV-E — custody surprise examination certificate (false neighbor)

ADV-E surfaces in keyword searches because of the "-E" suffix but is unrelated.

• Statutory basis: Filed under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, Rule 206(4)-2 of the Investment Advisers Act (custody rule). It transmits an independent accountant's surprise-exam certificate.
• Filer population: Registered investment advisers and their accountants — not offering issuers.
• Function: Compliance certification, not an offering notice. No connection to the Securities Act or §3(b).

Boundary summary

Form 1-E is uniquely defined by three simultaneous conditions: (1) a Regulation E §3(b) exemption, (2) a filer population limited to SBICs and BDCs, and (3) a pre-offering notification with a ten-business-day waiting period and no qualification step. Form 2-E is its periodic in-regulation counterpart. Form 1-A and the 1-K/1-SA/1-U series cover Reg A operating-company offerings under larger caps and a qualification regime. Form D covers Reg D private placements with post-sale timing. S-1 and N-2 are the registered alternatives BDCs use when foregoing Reg E. ADV-E is unrelated. None of these substitute for Form 1-E; they map adjacent regions of the same disclosure landscape.

Who Uses This Dataset

Form 1-E is a narrow Rule 604 pre-offering notification, and the Form 1-E Files Dataset serves a small, defined set of professional users who need exhaustive coverage of a rarely used form.

Exemption counsel

Securities lawyers drafting Form 1-E and 1-E/A notifications for SBICs and BDCs use the corpus as a precedent library. They mine peer filings for offering descriptions, affiliate and ten-percent-holder disclosures, jurisdictional lists, and exhibits defining conversion, redemption, subscription, and distribution rights. Output: drafting checklists, comment-letter responses, and judgments on disclosure depth historically accepted by staff.

BDC and SBIC compliance officers

In-house compliance teams use the dataset to prepare their own filings and benchmark against comparable issuers. They track 1-E to 1-E/A timing patterns, jurisdictional coverage, and affiliate identification conventions to confirm consistency with current staff practice and the ten-business-day pre-offering rule. Output: internal sign-off memos, filing checklists, and amendment logs.

Regulatory staff reviewing exempt offerings

Investment-management regulators and exam staff use the complete record to study filer concentration, repeat filers, and consistency between 1-E disclosures and the same registrant's Form N-2 or Form 10 filings. The metadata plus full document set supports exam scoping, sweep-letter drafting, and policy review of whether Rule 604 still functions as intended.

Securities-law academics

Researchers studying exemption adoption use the dataset to quantify Rule 604 usage across two decades. The total record count is itself evidence of Regulation E's marginal role. Focus areas: filer identity, filing frequency, initial-to-amendment ratios, and comparative usage against Regulation A, D, and Crowdfunding. Output: empirical legal studies and law review articles.

Capital markets and fund formation analysts

Analysts covering the BDC and SBIC universe use the dataset as a registry of exempt-offering activity invisible to registered-offering data. They map issuers and sponsors, combine 1-E records with adjacent small-offering filings, and build market-sizing reports and sponsor league tables. Issuer identification, affiliate disclosures, and offering descriptions are the primary inputs.

Diligence researchers

Transaction, lender, and counterparty diligence teams use the dataset to surface historical exempt-offering activity tied to BDCs, SBICs, or their affiliates. They focus on ten-percent-holder identification, exhibit-level rights instruments, and the 1-E/A amendment trail. Findings feed diligence memos, cap-table reconstructions, and management-interview questions.

Data engineers building EDGAR pipelines

Financial data engineering teams use the dataset as a pre-cleaned corpus for a rare form type whose submission structure has varied since 2002. Bundled metadata JSON with full HTML and TXT documents per accession number eliminates the cost of building a bespoke historical extractor. Output: filing warehouses, entity-extraction training sets, and analytics products without Regulation E blind spots.

Legal research and filing search vendors

Vendors indexing exempt-offering filings use the dataset to guarantee every 1-E and 1-E/A is surfaced. HTML and TXT content powers full-text search; JSON metadata supports faceted filtering by filer, date, and amendment status. Output: precedent libraries, issuer history pages, and new-filing alerts.

LLM and RAG developers

Teams building retrieval systems for securities-law research ingest 1-E content to improve model behavior on Rule 604 mechanics, BDC and SBIC exempt offerings, and Regulation E contours. Documents serve as retrieval chunks; metadata JSON acts as filtering signals; the closed corpus supports evaluation on narrowly scoped exemption questions.

Specific Use Cases

Concrete workflows that the Form 1-E Files Dataset directly supports. Each case names the user, the question being answered, and the record components consumed.

Building a precedent library for Reg E exemption counsel

A securities lawyer drafting a new Form 1-E for an SBIC client needs sample language for affiliate identification and ten-percent-holder disclosures. The user iterates over every accession folder, pulls the Reg E narrative body from each <DOCUMENT> block whose <TYPE> matches 1-E, and extracts the affiliate and significant-holder section to compare phrasing across filers. Output: a clause bank keyed by issuer type and filing year that feeds drafting checklists and staff-comment responses.

Reconstructing the 1-E to 1-E/A amendment trail for a single filer

A BDC compliance officer preparing a new offering needs to know how peer issuers used amendments. Using metadata.json, the user filters records where formType equals 1-E/A, then joins them back to their initial 1-E notifications by matching entities[].cik and entities[].fileNo (since each amendment receives a fresh accessionNo). Sorting by filedAt yields a per-issuer timeline showing how many days elapsed between the initial notification and each amendment, and which sections were restated. Output: an internal benchmarking memo on amendment cadence and trigger events.

Mapping jurisdictional offering footprints across two decades

A capital-markets analyst sizing the SBIC and BDC exempt-offering market wants to know which states issuers actually targeted under Rule 604. The user parses the jurisdictional schedule section from each Form 1-E body, normalizes state codes, and joins them to entities[].stateOfIncorporation from metadata.json. Output: a state-by-state heatmap of Reg E offerings, with home-state versus out-of-state breakdowns, used in a sponsor league table.

Extracting holder-rights instruments for diligence

A diligence team evaluating a BDC counterparty needs the governing instruments behind any Reg E offering the target previously ran. The user filters records by the target's CIK in entities[].cik, walks the documentFormatFiles array for entries with non-primary type values, and pulls the corresponding exhibit <DOCUMENT> blocks containing subscription agreements, partnership agreements, or indentures. Output: source documents attached to a diligence memo, used to reconstruct cap-table mechanics and conversion or redemption rights.

Branching extractors between Reg E narrative and ADV-E certificate bodies

A data engineer building an EDGAR pipeline needs reliable section extraction for Form 1-E even when the primary document follows the ADV-E certificate template instead of the canonical Reg E narrative. The pipeline reads documentFormatFiles[].description for each record (for example ADV-E versus a Reg E label) and the <DESCRIPTION> header inside the SGML envelope, then routes to one of two parsers. Output: a single ingestion pass that correctly populates downstream fields for issuer identity, affiliates, jurisdictions, and offering description across both body variants.

Quantifying Rule 604 adoption for an empirical legal study

A securities-law academic studying §3(b) exemption usage wants a per-year count of unique Reg E filers and the initial-to-amendment ratio from August 2002 forward. The user aggregates formType, filedAt, and entities[].cik across the full corpus, then compares the result to Reg A and Reg D baselines. Output: a published time series and ratio table showing Regulation E's marginal role relative to peer exemptions.

Powering a faceted full-text search index for an exempt-offering vendor

A legal research vendor indexing exempt offerings needs guaranteed coverage of every 1-E and 1-E/A. The vendor ingests each accession folder, uses metadata.json for filtering facets (filer name, CIK, formType, filedAt, stateOfIncorporation), and indexes the HTML and TXT bodies inside each <DOCUMENT> block for full-text search. Output: an issuer-history page and new-filing alert feed in which Reg E notifications appear alongside Reg A and Reg D records with no blind spots.

Dataset Access

The Form 1-E Files Dataset is available through three access paths: a metadata index API, a full archive download, and per-container downloads. Containers are distributed in ZIP format and contain HTML, JSON, and TXT files extracted from the original EDGAR submissions.

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files.json

Returns dataset-level metadata (name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total records, total size, covered form types, container format, and file types) along with the full list of containers. Each container entry includes its size, record count, last updated timestamp, and a direct downloadUrl. Use this endpoint to monitor which containers were refreshed in the most recent run and to decide which ones to download incrementally. This endpoint does not require an API key.

          1
          curl https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files.json
        

Example response:

          1
          {
        

          2
            "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-69f2-9bad-75518c7d87be",
        

          3
            "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files.zip",
        

          4
            "name": "Form 1-E Files Dataset",
        

          5
            "updatedAt": "2026-04-15T18:14:55.375Z",
        

          6
            "earliestSampleDate": "2002-08-01",
        

          7
            "totalRecords": 58,
        

          8
            "totalSize": 1846091,
        

          9
            "formTypes": ["1-E", "1-E/A"],
        

          10
            "containerFormat": "ZIP",
        

          11
            "fileTypes": ["HTML", "JSON", "TXT"],
        

          12
            "containers": [
        

          13
              {
        

          14
                "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files/2026/2026-03.zip",
        

          15
                "key": "2026/2026-03.zip",
        

          16
                "size": 42118,
        

          17
                "records": 2,
        

          18
                "updatedAt": "2026-04-15T18:14:55.375Z"
        

          19
              }
        

          20
            ]
        

          21
          }
        

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads the complete dataset as a single ZIP archive bundling every container from August 2002 to present. This endpoint requires authentication with your SEC API key.

          1
          curl -o form-1e-files.zip "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY"
        

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files/2026/2026-03.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads one individual container (typically a monthly archive) instead of the full dataset. Use the downloadUrl returned for each container in the index API response. This endpoint requires authentication with your SEC API key.

          1
          curl -o 2026-03.zip "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files/2026/2026-03.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY"
        

Frequently Asked Questions

What form does this dataset cover?

The dataset covers Form 1-E and Form 1-E/A — the pre-offering notification and amendment filed under Rule 604 of Regulation E (17 CFR 230.601–230.610), which provides a Securities Act §3(b) exemption from registration for limited offerings by SBICs and BDCs. Both initial notifications and amendments are included in the same monthly containers and are distinguished by the formType field.

What does one record in this dataset represent?

One record is a single Form 1-E or Form 1-E/A submission to EDGAR, identified by its 18-digit accession number and materialized as one accession-level folder. The folder contains a structured metadata.json sidecar describing filing identity, document inventory, and filer entity attributes, plus the verbatim original EDGAR documents (HTML and TXT) preserved under their original filenames.

Who is required to file Form 1-E?

Only small business investment companies (SBICs) licensed under the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 and business development companies (BDCs) elected under §54 election of the Investment Company Act of 1940 may file Form 1-E. Operating companies, ordinary registered funds, ETFs, unit investment trusts, and foreign issuers are not eligible — they use Regulation A (Form 1-A), Regulation D (Form D), or full registration on Forms S-1, N-1A, N-2, or N-14.

When must Form 1-E be filed?

Rule 604 requires the issuer to file the notification at least ten business days before the date of the initial offering or sale. Form 1-E is event-driven rather than periodic — it is not tied to a fiscal year-end and is triggered solely by an issuer's intention to commence a Regulation E offering. Form 1-E/A amendments may follow to correct or supplement the original notification.

What time period does the dataset cover?

The dataset covers electronic Form 1-E and Form 1-E/A submissions on EDGAR from August 2002 to the present. Earlier paper filings predate EDGAR's electronic archive and are not included. The earliestSampleDate returned by the index API is 2002-08-01.

What file format is the dataset distributed in?

The dataset is distributed as monthly ZIP containers under the path form-1e-files/<year>/<year>-<month>.zip. Each container holds accession folders containing one metadata.json plus the original EDGAR documents in HTML, JSON, and TXT formats. Image binaries (JPG, GIF, PNG) that may have been part of the original submission are deliberately excluded from the dataset packaging.

How does Form 1-E differ from Form D and Form 1-A?

Form D is a Regulation D private-placement notice filed within 15 days after the first sale by issuers of any industry, generally to accredited investors. Form 1-A is a Regulation A offering statement filed pre-sale by operating companies and must be qualified by SEC staff before sales begin (Tier 1 caps at $20M and Tier 2 at $75M per 12 months). Form 1-E is restricted to SBICs and BDCs, capped at $5M per 12 months, filed pre-sale with a ten-business-day waiting period, and not subject to staff qualification.

How do I join a Form 1-E/A amendment back to its original Form 1-E?

Each amendment receives a fresh accession number, so amendments cannot be joined to their underlying initial notification by accessionNo. Instead, join on filer identifiers — entities[].cik and entities[].fileNo from metadata.json — and order by filedAt to reconstruct the per-issuer timeline of initial notification and subsequent amendments.

How do I access the dataset programmatically?

Three endpoints are available: a public index API at https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files.json that returns dataset metadata and a per-container download list (no key required); a full-archive endpoint at https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY; and per-container endpoints such as https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1e-files/<year>/<year>-<month>.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY. The two download endpoints require authentication with an SEC API key.