A major Wall Street bank has climbed to the top of technology investment banking by placing early bets on startups that competitors might overlook.
JPMorgan’s approach became clear in 2017 when Pattern Group co-founders David Wright and Melanie Alder sought $10 million for their startup. Despite the relatively small amount for a bank managing $2.5 trillion in assets, JPMorgan dispatched a team to Lehi, Utah, for an in-person evaluation of the e-commerce business.
“We were literally in a warehouse with some desks next to it,” Pattern CFO Jason Beesley recalled. “They came and visited us and weren’t spooked by that.”
The investment in relationships proved profitable. Pattern’s annual revenue expanded from $100 million to $2.5 billion by last year, with JPMorgan serving as the exclusive banker for the company’s $225 million Series B funding in October 2021 and a $150 million revolving credit facility last year. The bank later co-managed Pattern’s September IPO alongside Goldman Sachs, raising $300 million and establishing a company valuation of approximately $2.5 billion. Pattern’s stock has climbed 27% since going public, with projected revenue of $3.3 billion this year.
“It’s very important for us to be able to say to our clients that ‘we’re going to be with you, no matter what your size is, and no matter what happens’,” explained Andrew Kresse, the bank’s co-head of innovation economy. “We’re not looking for only companies that want an IPO.”
This relationship-focused strategy has elevated JPMorgan to the number one position in technology investment banking during the first quarter, surpassing rival Goldman Sachs, according to Dealogic data covering equity and debt underwriting, lending and mergers and acquisitions.
Although Goldman maintained its leadership in tech M&A by total transaction value, JPMorgan excelled across other sectors, securing 16.7% of total tech investment banking fees in the first quarter, LSEG reported.
“JPMorgan has a best-in-class global investment bank that layers capital markets, lending and all the frills that go along with it. They deliver the whole firm to their clients,” noted Mike Mayo, head of U.S. large-cap bank research at Wells Fargo, placing JPMorgan among the industry’s top three investment banks alongside Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
The bank established its Innovation Economy banking division approximately ten years ago to focus on founder-led, high-growth, venture-backed startups in healthcare and technology sectors during earlier development stages. Following Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse in 2023 — which had previously dominated startup banking — JPMorgan quickly moved to acquire its clients and recruit personnel.
Since then, the bank has grown its technology investment banking team by hiring roughly a dozen senior bankers in 2025 and bringing in veteran dealmaker Kevin Brunner from Bank of America as global chairman of investment banking. JPMorgan is also recruiting Kaushik Banerjee and Homan Milani from Bank of America, who will join as managing directors in the technology investment banking group later this year.
The team faced significant challenges last year when it lost three global heads of technology banking in quick succession: Madhu Namburi departed for venture capital firm General Catalyst while Drago Rajkovic and Pankaj Goel both moved to Citigroup. The company announced Wednesday a leadership restructuring at the investment bank’s top level, promoting Dorothee Blessing, Kevin Foley and Jared Kaye to oversee global investment banking and former M&A head Anu Aiyengar to global chair of investment banking and M&A.
Not every IPO has matched Pattern’s success. As lead bank for Circle Internet Group’s public offering, JPMorgan faced criticism for potentially underpricing when the stablecoin issuer debuted at $31 per share and surged to $95 on its June 5 trading launch. This marked one of the first major IPOs following the Trump administration’s Liberation Day that had halted new listings for weeks, catching the industry off-guard with unexpected investor enthusiasm.
Currently, JPMorgan employs over 550 bankers serving innovation economy clients worldwide — 200 hired since 2023 — and collaborates with more than 11,000 startups and high-growth companies across 40 countries. Technology transactions alone represented 22% of the bank’s $3.2 billion in total investment banking fee revenue during the first quarter, making it the bank’s strongest performing sector, according to LSEG data.
By establishing early connections with startups and expanding relationships across lending, capital markets and advisory services, the bank aims to secure larger portions of major technology deals as these companies mature.
DoorDash exemplifies this approach. JPMorgan initiated work with the local commerce platform nearly ten years ago when its valuation remained under $1 billion. The bank supported its expansion, providing Chase cardholders with complimentary or discounted DashPass memberships in 2020 before managing the company’s public offering that same year. Recently, it advised on DoorDash’s $3.9 billion acquisition of London-based Deliveroo.
“We are uniquely positioned to support a company from its early days into becoming one of the most significant tech companies in the ecosystem,” stated John Simmons, co-head of global banking. DoorDash now maintains a market value of approximately $73 billion.
JPMorgan has also provided advisory services for several prominent technology transactions recently, including Palo Alto Networks’ roughly $25 billion acquisition of CyberArk, Salesforce’s $8 billion purchase of Informatica, and Global Payments’ $24.25 billion acquisition of Worldpay alongside the $13.5 billion sale of its Issuer Solutions business to FIS.
JPMorgan executives describe their methodology as distinct from traditional investment banking models that concentrate primarily on individual transactions.
Developing relationships early enables the bank to “build the trust necessary to help clients navigate complex transactions,” said Noah Wintroub, global chairman of investment banking.
Matt Kuta, a former F-15E fighter pilot and co-founder of Voyager Technologies, encountered JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon at the annual Army-Navy football game in December 2024. The Denver-based space technology company already maintained a commercial banking relationship, and Kuta mentioned their need for an investment bank.
Dimon connected him with Simmons, who played a key role in managing Voyager’s $383 million IPO last year, establishing a valuation of about $3.8 billion.
JPMorgan banker Kristina Nilsson facilitated one of Voyager’s recent partnerships by introducing CEO Dylan Taylor to Matthew Kinsella, CEO of quantum technology company Infleqtion. The companies revealed plans in November to incorporate Infleqtion’s Tiqker atomic clock into low-Earth orbit missions aboard the International Space Station and Starlab, the commercial space station Voyager is helping develop.
Taylor praised JPMorgan’s responsiveness and internal collaboration, mentioning that Dimon occasionally sends direct emails to check in.
“If I emailed Jamie right now … he probably wouldn’t respond within an hour, but he would respond later today,” Taylor said. “The fact that he even knows who I am is pretty unique.”
