The company launched under the name Pejman Mar Ventures, in 2013.[4][5] Pear VC was founded by Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson, and features both a venture investing arm and an accelerator launched in 2014. By 2021, the accelerator had overseen 80 companies through the program.[6]
Prior to founding the company, Hershenson had founded software companies Barcelona Design, Sabio Labs, and Revel Touch.[7][8] Nozad had served as a sports journalist, radio host, professional soccer player, and rug salesman before going into venture capital.[9]
In 2015, Pejman Mar sponsored a $250,000 startup competition at UC Berkeley.[10][11] Over time, the company has also sponsored fellowship and entrepreneurship programs under the name “Pear Dorm” at other educational institutions such as Stanford University, Harvard University, and MIT.[5][12][13]
Pejman Mar rebranded as Pear VC in 2016.[4] Pear VC was one of the companies backing DoorDash prior to its launch.[5] Other companies Pear VC has supported include Guardant Health,[14] Gusto,[14][15]Polarr[16] and Branch.[17]
For their work with Pear VC, Hershenson was ranked number 29 and Nozad was ranked 15 on Forbes’ 2021 Midas List.[18] The following year, Nozad was named number 2 on Forbes’ 2022 Midas Seed List[19] and number 15 on the regular Midas List,[20] while Hershenson was ranked number 30 on the Midas List.[20]
In 2022, Matt Birnbaum, former head of talent acquisition at Instacart, joined Pear VC as its head of talent.[21]
On the 10th of March, 2023, CNBC reported that Pear VC had urged its portfolio companies to withdraw funds from Silicon Valley Bank before SVB had collapsed.[22]
Pear raised $423m for a seed venture fund in 2023, and had also invested in Guardant Health and Gusto at the two company's inceptions.[23] It targeted pre-seed and seed investments in artificial intelligence.[24] It closed its largest fund at that point in May 2023, with investors in previous funds including the Inasmuch Foundation, Los Angeles Fire & Police Pension System, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and the Passport Foundation.[25]
Investment model
Pear VC mainly works with startups in their earliest stages, such as pre-seed and seed-stage companies.[26] Pear VC uses a two-pronged structure in which it houses both a venture investing arm and an accelerator.[27]
