JPMorgan Sees End of Startups’ ‘Private-for-Longer’ Mantra

After years of facing requests from startups to help them stay private for longer, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s clients are starting to sing a different tune.

“A lot of these companies that said ‘private for longer, private for longer,’ are now saying ‘private for a little bit longer – let’s start thinking about that IPO process,’” JPMorgan’s Matt Gehl said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. “And maybe it’s not 2026 but its probably going to be 2027 or 2028.”

Gehl’s comments come after a trio of recent initial public offerings are giving London a chance to prove the market is still an attractive destination for listings. Equity capital markets in the US are also humming, with companies and shareholders raising more than $255 billion in the first nine months of 2025, the most in four years.

Gehl, who leads the firm’s technology investment bankers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, was speaking on the sidelines of the firm’s annual TechStars event in London.

For some companies, going public is a way to help with growth. For instance, payment card reader company SumUp is evaluating an initial public offering because it would give it a publicly traded currency it could use to buy up competitors across Europe, according to Chief Financial Officer Hermione McKee.

“Consolidation is a key dynamic within payments across Europe and given that SumUp has been able to grow to this scale, SumUp has a really important role to play as a consolidator,” McKee said in a separate interview with Bloomberg Television. “So as we look towards that, the opportunity for having a listed security as a currency in that activity is an attractive one that we continue to consider.”

The Financial Times previously reported SumUp was weighing a listing that would value the business at $10 billion to $15 billion.

Governments on both sides of the pond are looking to introduce policies to make it easier for companies to tap public markets. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, who’s been part of the UK government’s broad charm offensive with prospective listing candidates to lure them to London, is expected to be among the speakers at the TechStars event.

In the US, Wall Street’s top regulator has pledged to fast-track President Donald Trump’s proposal to end quarterly reporting for most companies. Gehl said such a move would likely be more useful for those companies that are already public because it will allow them more freedom to invest over the longer term.

“All these things add up to reducing the burden to go public but none of them are a reason somebody’s going to go,” Gehl said. “So hopefully if we do make that change, that gives the public companies a little bit more of an opportunity to compete with some of the private companies.”