JPMorgan Chase Raises $1.22B For Social Media Investing

JPMorgan Chase has raised $1.22 billion for a new fund, J.P. Morgan Digital Growth Fund LP, that will focus on social media investments, Reuters reported, citing an article from the New York Times.

(Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co has raised $1.22 billion for a new fund to invest in the social media sector, above the $500 million to $750 million it had been expected to raise, The New York Times said on Wednesday.

The $1.22 billion figure is contained in a Wednesday regulatory filing by an issuer called the J.P. Morgan Digital Growth Fund LP, on a line representing “total amount sold.”

The Digital Growth fund is described in the filing as a “venture capital fund” that will offer “pooled investment fund interests,” and that no additional sales will take place after Dec. 31, 2011.

The Digital Growth fund is the social media fund, according to the Times, which did not say how it made the connection.

JPMorgan did not immediately return a request for comment. The bank declined to comment to the newspaper.

Wednesday’s filing is signed by Katherine Rosa, a managing director in JPMorgan’s investment management unit.

A launch of a social media fund would follow January’s $1.5 billion fundraising by Facebook, operator of the world’s biggest social networking website, mainly from Goldman Sachs Group Inc and that bank’s clients.

It comes as LinkedIn Corp, a networking site targeted toward professionals, prepares to raise as much as $175 million in an initial public offering. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, editing by Bernard Orr)