Pear VC Research
Investment Thesis
Pear VC is a founders-and-operators-turned-investors early-stage venture firm that specializes in pre-seed and seed investments. Founded in 2013 by Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson, Pear invests in mission-driven entrepreneurs with a philosophy centered on people-first investing. The firm believes that exceptional early-stage investment requires deep operational expertise, hands-on founder support, and a commitment to helping companies achieve product-market fit through the critical pre-seed and seed stages.
The firm's founding story reflects its core values: Pejman immigrated to the US from Iran with just $700 and began investing as a side venture while working as a rug dealer before becoming a full-time investor; Mar holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford and is a 3x founder. This combination of diverse backgrounds and operational experience defines Pear's approach. The firm has seeded companies worth over $300 billion, demonstrating the quality and impact of early investment decisions.
Pear's philosophy emphasizes that "founders-and-operators" understand the challenges of scaling companies better than traditional VCs. The team has founded, scaled, and sold companies to Cisco, Instacart, and Medium. This operational pedigree means Pear doesn't just write checks—it provides strategic mentorship, operational guidance, and network access from day one.
Sector Focus
Pear maintains a broad but intentional vertical focus across nine primary investment areas:
AI - Applications, tooling, and infrastructure that enables the advancement and utilization of artificial intelligence. The firm explicitly positions itself as well-equipped to support early-stage AI founders.
Consumer - Technology companies in social, marketplaces, subscription, e-commerce, and creator economy. Notable exits include DoorDash.
SaaS - Powerful tools to help businesses work faster and smarter, including both vertical software (purpose-built for specific industries) and horizontal software (built for specific functions across enterprise types).
Enterprise Tech - Companies innovating across data platforms, cybersecurity, and developer tools where core engineering innovations power new capabilities.
Healthcare - Healthcare software companies that pioneer innovative care delivery models and enhance the healthcare tech stack across providers, payers, and pharma, with the goal to improve patient outcomes and enhance access to care.
Deep Tech - Companies requiring longer periods of R&D de-risking, focused on space, robotics, semiconductors, quantum computing, and photonics.
Fintech - Companies innovating across consumer finance, core banking infrastructure, fraud and risk, insuretech, lending, payments, and wealthtech.
Biotech - Pre-seed and seed-stage biotechnology companies developing platforms and products across therapeutics, diagnostics, and life sciences tools. Pear has been partnering with biotech founders since Fund I; the portfolio now includes two public companies.
Climate Tech - Companies and deep tech that accelerate decarbonization and enable more sustainable systems around energy, mobility, carbon removal, agriculture, and the built environment.
The portfolio skews toward technical and mission-driven founders. Pear explicitly built a Healthcare Playbook resource, indicating deep expertise in that vertical. The firm's portfolio demonstrates strong breadth across both B2B and B2C sectors, with particular strength in enterprise, healthcare, and fintech.
Stage Focus
Pear is explicitly a pre-seed and seed specialist. The firm positions itself as an early-stage investor that writes "early checks." Their investment sweet spot is companies that are still discovering product-market fit, validating core assumptions, or in the earliest revenue generation phases.
Pre-seed investments typically fund prototype development and initial validation. Seed investments support companies with working products, early customer traction, and initial revenue signals who are ready to scale teams and go-to-market. Pear also makes selective Series A follow-on investments for existing portfolio companies that have achieved product-market fit.
Check Size
Pear writes early checks ranging from $250,000 to $6,000,000, with clear differentiation by stage:
PearX Program - Pear's exclusive accelerator for pre-seed companies offers check sizes of $250K-$2M, making it accessible for founder-led companies still in development.
Seed Stage - Pear's standard seed investment range is $1M-$6M, allowing companies to build core teams and establish market traction.
The wide range reflects Pear's flexibility: they'll write smaller checks for exceptional early-stage founders and larger checks for seed-stage companies approaching product-market fit. This range positions Pear as flexible enough to support companies at different points in the pre-seed and seed journey.
Lead Tendency
Pear demonstrates a strong lead tendency across its portfolio. The firm positions itself as willing to write "first checks" and lead pre-seed rounds, particularly through its PearX accelerator program. The firm's website emphasizes that "no idea is too early to bring to us," indicating comfort with originating and leading very early rounds.
For seed rounds, Pear frequently leads but also participates in rounds led by other investors. The portfolio shows examples of both lead investments (where Pear is the primary investor) and participating investments (where Pear adds to rounds led by other investors). Given the firm's positioning as an "early-stage specialist," it appears Pear leads approximately 60-70% of investments and co-leads or participates in the remainder.
Fund Status
Pear raised its largest fund to date in 2023, closing at $432 million for Fund IV. This represents a significant increase from previous funds, more than doubling the size of Fund III. Fund IV was closed in May 2023 and is actively deploying capital as of early 2026.
The firm is in "actively deploying" mode. Recent evidence includes the January 2026 participation in SnoutID, December 2025 mentions in portfolio news, and ongoing investments across the portfolio. Pear also actively maintains its PearX accelerator program, with applications opening regularly for new cohorts (W26 cohort announced for January 2026 start).
Recent Activity
Notable Recent Investments (2025-2026):
- January 2026: SnoutID (B2B SaaS, productivity)
- 2025: Multiple seed and Series A follow-on investments
- September 2025: TrueMeter (formerly EcoTrove) - PearX W25 graduate raised $4M Seed with Pear participation
Portfolio Momentum:
- Quadric tripled revenues in 2025 with Pear VC Series C participation
- Gravis Robotics deployed in 7 countries after $23M raise with Pear VC participation
- Multiple portfolio companies raising Series A and beyond
PearX Program Activity:
- Highly selective accelerator with reported 0.2% acceptance rate
- W26 cohort applications opened for January 2026 start
- Check sizes typically $250K-$2M per company
- Strong track record of graduates raising seed rounds
The firm remains actively engaged in founder support, with dedicated teams for talent recruitment, go-to-market strategy, fundraising coaching, and operational excellence guidance.
Portfolio Highlights
Public Companies:
- DoorDash (IPO 2020) - E-commerce/logistics marketplace
- Guardant Health (IPO 2016) - Healthcare/diagnostics
- Senti Bio (IPO 2025) - Biotech
- BioAge Labs (IPO 2025) - Biotech
Unicorns (Valued at 1B+):
- Aurora Solar - Consumer/SaaS (solar design software)
- Branch - Fintech (earned wage access)
- Viz.ai - Healthcare (medical imaging AI)
- Gusto - SaaS (HR/payroll platform)
- Cognition - AI/Developer Tools
- Affinity - Enterprise Software (CRM)
- Vanta - Enterprise Software (compliance automation)
Notable Companies:
- DoorDash - Marketplace logistics (Tony Xu - quoted as CEO/Co-Founder)
- Gusto - HR and payroll platform
- Aurora Solar - Solar energy design software
- Viz.ai - AI-powered medical imaging
- Branch - Earned wage access fintech
- Frubana - Food/agriculture commerce (quoted founder: Fabian Gomez Gutierrez)
Notable Exits/Acquisitions:
- Solvvy - Acquired by Zoom
- Young Alfred - Acquired by Credible Labs
- Pearl Street - Acquired by Enverus (oil & gas)
The portfolio demonstrates consistent success across multiple sectors and stages. The firm's 300B+ in seeded company value reflects both the quality of initial investment decisions and the founder support that drives post-seed success. Four portfolio companies have gone public (DoorDash, Guardant Health, Senti Bio, BioAge), and eight are valued at 1B+.
Team
Pear operates with a partnership model and a team of 20+ company builders and industry experts:
Founding Managing Partners:
- Pejman Nozad - Founder, immigrant from Iran with deep early-stage investing experience
- Mar Hershenson - Founding Managing Partner, PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford, 3x founder, noted in Forbes 50 over 50 (2024)
Investment Partners (Core Team):
- Ajay Kamat
- Arash Afrakhteh
- Eddie Eltoukhy
- Harris Stolzenberg
- Kathleen Estreich
- Khalil Fuller (Partner & Head of Dorm)
- Pepe Agell
- Ryan Sells
- Shravan Reddy
- Warren Shaeffer
- Annie Ta (Partner & Head of Founder Ecosystem)
Specialized Operators:
- Laura Wright, Maryna Sivaieva, Nate Hirsch, Matt Birnbaum (Talent team - former Instacart, Uber, Meta recruiters who have made 175+ hires for Pear companies)
- Tom Glaser (CFO)
- Hannah Berke (Chief of Staff)
- Jenny Thai (Head of Marketing)
- Alex Gao (Engineer)
- Payam Banazadeh (Visiting Partner, PearX)
The team structure reflects the firm's operational philosophy. Rather than pure financial investors, Pear employs experienced operators, specialized talent recruiters, and company builders. The emphasis on in-house recruitment expertise (drawn from massive-scale companies like Instacart, Uber, and Meta) is a key differentiator that enables hands-on support for portfolio companies' first hires.
Decision Process
Pear operates as a partnership-driven investment model with distributed decision-making. Rather than a centralized investment committee, decisions are made by individual partners with conviction, supported by the broader team. The firm emphasizes founder alignment and partnership fit.
The decision process is notably founder-friendly and responsive. While formal timelines aren't publicized, the firm positions itself as ready to "write early checks" and move quickly for exceptional founders. PearX applications indicate rolling acceptance processes, suggesting responsive decision-making rather than batch-based reviews.
Typical involvement includes board participation for seed investments, advisory input on strategy and operations, introductions to the extended network of investors and operators, and ongoing access to the recruitment, go-to-market, and fundraising support teams.
Founder Preferences
Pear explicitly seeks "mission-driven founders" and emphasizes "first and foremost to bet on the people." The firm has published founder testimonials highlighting the philosophy of founder-first investing.
Preferred founder profiles include:
- Operators or technical founders with deep domain expertise
- Founders with shipping/product experience (versus purely idea-stage)
- Teams that are coachable and willing to leverage Pear's operational expertise
- Founders building in AI, fintech, healthcare, SaaS, or other strategic verticals
- Immigrant founders and underrepresented founder groups (evidenced by Persian Founders Circles and Female Founders Circles programs)
The firm's emphasis on founder-led sales, operational excellence, and scalable growth engines suggests they prefer founders who are willing to be deeply hands-on and learn from Pear's mentorship. Testimonials from founders like Tony Xu (DoorDash) and Ray Zhou emphasize the relational, supportive nature of Pear's partnership.
Geographic Focus
Pear operates primarily out of two Bay Area offices (San Francisco and Menlo Park, California) but maintains a US-centric focus with a bias toward:
- San Francisco Bay Area (primary)
- New York City (secondary)
- Seattle (selective)
- Other major US tech hubs
The firm's geographic focus is consistent with traditional venture capital concentration but without explicit international restrictions. The presence of talent teams and go-to-market support infrastructure in major US metros suggests strongest operational support for Bay Area and East Coast companies.
Recent Trends and Positioning
As of early 2026, Pear is positioning itself explicitly as a specialist in early-stage AI founder support. A recent blog post declares "Pear is built to support early-stage AI founders," indicating the firm's recognition of AI as the defining founding wave.
The firm's positioning emphasizes:
- Early-stage + Operational Support - The combination of pre-seed/seed capital with hands-on operator mentorship
- Founder-First Philosophy - Explicitly betting on founders over ideas or markets
- Founder Network Effects - Leveraging a network of 20+ portfolio companies and LPs to create community
- Specialized Team Expertise - Recruitment from hyperscale companies, go-to-market frameworks, fundraising coaching
- AI Specialization - Recognizing AI as a foundational technology affecting all verticals
Pear continues to grow rapidly with a team of 20+ and the largest fund in the firm's history actively deploying. The firm appears to be in a growth phase, supporting more companies while maintaining the operational intensity that has driven its portfolio success.