Hercules Capital Inc

1. Disclosure Controls and Procedures

The Company’s chief executive and chief financial officers, under the supervision and with the participation of the Company’s management, conducted an evaluation of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures, as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act. As of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report, the Company’s chief executive and chief financial officers have concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective to ensure that information required to be disclosed by the Company in reports that the Company files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and that information required to be disclosed by the Company in the reports that the Company files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the Company’s management, including the Company’s chief executive and chief financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

2. Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

a. Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

The Company is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting and for the assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. As defined by the SEC, internal control over financial reporting is a process designed under the supervision of the Company’s principal executive and principal financial and accounting officer, approved and monitored by the Company’s Board, and implemented by management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

The Company’s internal control over financial reporting is supported by written policies and procedures, that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the Company’s assets; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and that receipts and expenditures of the Company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of the Company’s management and directors; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of the Company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Management of the Company conducted an assessment of the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023 based on criteria established in Internal Control— Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission ("the COSO Framework"). Based on this assessment, management has concluded that the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2023.

The effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm who also audited the Company’s consolidated financial statements, as stated in their report, which is included in this Annual Report on Form 10K.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting in 2023

There have been no changes in the Company’s internal control over financing reporting, as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act, which occurred during the Company’s most recently completed fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.