JPMorgan launches JPAX-Middle Market index of 6,400 firms

On May 6, JPMorgan Chase launched the J.P. Morgan Private Assets Index (JPAX)-Middle Market. The index tracks about 6,400 U.S. private companies with combined annual revenue of roughly $1 trillion. It includes firms with annual sales between $10 million and $1 billion and is intended as a benchmark for middle-market activity.

JPMorgan described the index as ‘a diagnostic instrument’ rather than a tradable product, designed to provide general partners, limited partners, corporations and middle-market firms an ‘institutional-grade measuring stick.’

Analysts led by Gloria Kim, head of global index research, wrote in a research note that ‘The scale and growing significance of the middle market stands in direct contrast to the state of its measurement infrastructure.’ The analysts wrote that the index aims to address a gap between the growing size of the middle market and the limits of current measurement systems.

The number of publicly traded U.S. companies has fallen by nearly half since the late 1990s as more firms remain privately held. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has highlighted that trend in recent years.

JPMorgan positioned JPAX-Middle Market to help institutional investors benchmark and analyze performance across a wide range of private businesses. The firm presented the index as a reference point for dealmakers and portfolio managers rather than a vehicle for direct investment.

The bank expanded its private company coverage last year, including research on individual private firms such as OpenAI. JPAX-Middle Market is the first in a planned series of tools intended to increase transparency and standardization in private markets, where reporting and valuation practices vary.

The firm expects the index to help market participants assess trends and compare private firms against a common yardstick.