Key Points:
- JPMorgan secured the top spot in tech investment banking by taking 16.7% of total market fees in early 2026.
- Early relationship building with small startups like Pattern Group led to massive IPO and acquisition deals later.
- The bank works with over 11,000 high-growth companies across 40 countries, supported by a massive team of 550 bankers.
- Technology deals alone generated 22% of the bank’s $3.2 billion in total fee revenue during the first quarter.
When David Wright and Melanie Alder needed $10 million to fund their startup Pattern Group in 2017, the amount meant almost nothing to JPMorgan. At the time, the massive bank held $2.5 trillion in assets. Yet, the bank still flew a full team of executives to Lehi, Utah, to meet the founders face-to-face. Pattern CFO Jason Beesley said the startup operated out of a simple warehouse with a few desks, but the visiting bankers did not care about the messy setup.
That early visit created a strong bond and paid off massively for the bank. Pattern eventually grew its yearly revenue from $100 million to $2.5 billion. Because JPMorgan showed up early, Pattern chose the firm to solely handle its $225 million Series B funding round in October 2021. The bank also set up a $150 million credit line last year. In September, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs led the $300 million Pattern IPO, valuing the e-commerce company at $2.5 billion. The stock jumped 27% after the launch, and Pattern expects to hit $3.3 billion in revenue this year.
Andrew Kresse, a leader at the bank, said they want to support founders through their entire business journey. He explained that JPMorgan does not just look for companies wanting a quick IPO. The bank uses its smaller commercial division, its huge global corporate banking group, and its wealth management team to offer everything a growing business needs. This exact plan helped JPMorgan beat Goldman Sachs to grab the number one spot in technology investment banking during the first quarter.
While Goldman Sachs handled the largest tech mergers by total dollar value, JPMorgan won in every other category. Data from LSEG shows JPMorgan took 16.7% of all tech investment banking fees in the first quarter. Mike Mayo, a top bank analyst at Wells Fargo, noted that JPMorgan gives its clients the full power of the entire firm. Technology deals accounted for 22% of the bank’s $3.2 billion in total fee revenue for the quarter, making tech its best-performing sector.
JPMorgan started this specific technology strategy about 10 years ago to find fast-growing startups in healthcare and software. When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 2023, JPMorgan rushed in to capture stranded clients and hire the best bankers. Today, JPMorgan employs over 550 bankers who work directly with clients in the innovation economy worldwide. The firm has hired 200 of these experts since 2023, and they currently manage accounts for over 11,000 startups across 40 countries.
The bank also aggressively hired new leaders to advance this strategy. They added about 12 senior tech bankers in 2025 and brought in Kevin Brunner from Bank of America to serve as global chairman of investment banking. However, the company lost three top tech bankers to rivals such as General Catalyst and Citigroup last year. To fix this, the firm promoted Dorothee Blessing, Kevin Foley, and Jared Kaye on Wednesday to lead global investment banking.
The bank does make mistakes along the way. For example, JPMorgan led the Circle Internet Group IPO. People criticized the bank for underpricing the shares at $31. On its June 5 trading debut, the stock rocketed to $95. Investors showed massive demand for the stock after a long pause in the market, catching bankers by surprise and leaving money on the table for the stablecoin issuer.
Still, the early relationship strategy usually works perfectly. JPMorgan started helping DoorDash nearly a decade ago, when the food delivery app was valued at under $1 billion. The bank offered special discounts to Chase cardholders in 2020 to boost DoorDash user numbers. Later that year, the bank took DoorDash public. Today, DoorDash boasts a $73 billion valuation, and JPMorgan recently helped the company buy London-based Deliveroo for $3.9 billion.
John Simmons, co-head of global banking, said his team can support a tiny startup until it becomes a massive global force. This trust leads to giant corporate mergers. JPMorgan recently helped Palo Alto Networks buy CyberArk for roughly $25 billion. The bank also advised Salesforce on its $8 billion acquisition of Informatica and guided Global Payments through a $24.25 billion deal to acquire Worldpay.
Building early trust wins the biggest deals. Matt Kuta, a former fighter pilot who co-founded Voyager Technologies, met JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon at a football game in December 2024. Voyager already used JPMorgan for basic commercial banking, but they needed an investment bank. Dimon connected Kuta to Simmons. The bank then managed Voyager’s $383 million IPO last year, which valued the space technology company at $3.8 billion.
JPMorgan banker Kristina Nilsson also helped Voyager secure a major industry partnership. She introduced Voyager CEO Dylan Taylor to the CEO of quantum technology company Infleqtion. In November, the two companies agreed to put atomic clocks on the International Space Station. Taylor said this level of personal attention makes JPMorgan different, noting that even Dimon occasionally emails him directly to check on their progress.
