Pear VC (prior name Pejman Mar) is a seed-stage

venture firm Venture may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *The Ventures, an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 *"A Venture", 1971 song by the band Yes *''Venture'', a 2010 EP by AJR Games * ''Venture'' (video game), a 1981 arcade gam ...

based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by Pejman Nozad and

Mar Hershenson Mar Hershenson is a Spanish-American venture capitalist, electrical engineer, professor, and business executive in the electronic design automation industry. She is the co-founder and managing partner at Pear VC. In 2021, she ranked #29 on ''Forb ...

in 2013. Pear VC works with early-stage companies. The company was originally based in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

before relocating to Menlo Park.

History

The company launched under the name Pejman Mar Ventures, in 2013. Pear VC was founded by Pejman Nozad and

, and features both a venture investing arm and an accelerator launched in 2014. By 2021, the accelerator had overseen 80 companies through the program. Prior to founding the company, Hershenson had founded software companies Barcelona Design, Sabio Labs, and Revel Touch. Nozad had served as a sports journalist, radio host, professional soccer player, and rug salesman before going into venture capital. In 2015, Pejman Mar sponsored a $250,000 startup competition at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

. Over time, the company has also sponsored fellowship and entrepreneurship programs under the name “Pear Dorm” at other educational institutions such as

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and MIT. Pejman Mar rebranded as Pear VC in 2016. Pear VC was one of the companies backing

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prior to its launch. Other companies Pear VC has supported include Guardant Health, Gusto,

Polarr Polarr is a startup headquartered in San Jose, California, that offers applications to allow creators to make and distribute photos and video filters. Its products include mobile apps for creators to create and search for image filters, as well ...

and Branch. For their work with Pear VC, Hershenson was ranked number 29 and Nozad was ranked 15 on

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

’ 2021 Midas List. The following year, Nozad was named number 2 on Forbes’ 2022 Midas Seed List and number 15 on the regular Midas List, while Hershenson was ranked number 30 on the Midas List. In 2022, Matt Birnbaum, former head of talent acquisition at Instacart, joined Pear VC as its head of talent. 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. 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. It targeted pre-seed and seed investments in artificial intelligence. It closed its largest fund at that point in May 2023, with investors in previous funds including the

Inasmuch Foundation The Inasmuch Foundation is a grant-making foundation based in Oklahoma, United States. It provides financial contributions to projects focusing on education, health and human services, arts, historic preservation and environmental concerns in the st ...

, Los Angeles Fire & Police Pension System, the

Richard King Mellon Foundation Richard King Mellon (June 19, 1899 – June 3, 1970), commonly known as R.K., was an American financier, general, and philanthropist from Ligonier, Pennsylvania, and part of the Mellon family. Biography The son of Richard B. Mellon, nephew of A ...

, and the Passport Foundation.

Investment model

Pear VC mainly works with startups in their earliest stages, such as pre-seed and seed-stage companies. Pear VC uses a two-pronged structure in which it houses both a venture investing arm and an accelerator.

References

{{Reflist Venture capital firms of the United States American companies established in 2013 Companies based in Menlo Park, California Financial services companies established in 2013