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Pear VC
FormerlyPejman Mar
Company typePrivate
IndustryFinancial, Venture Capital, startup accelerator
Founded2013; 11 years ago (2013)
FounderPejman Nozad, Mar Hershenson
HeadquartersMenlo Park, California, USA
Key people
Pejman Nozad, Mar Hershenson
Websitewww.pear.vc

Pear VC (prior name Pejman Mar) is a seed-stage venture firm based in Menlo Park, California.[1] It was founded by Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson in 2013.[2][3] Pear VC works with early-stage companies. The company was originally based in Palo Alto, California[3] before relocating to Menlo Park.[1]

History

[edit]

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

[edit]

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]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Bradshaw, Kate. "Venture capital firm has leased historic Oasis building". www.almanacnews.com. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  2. ^ Loizos, Connie (2022-05-21). "Pear, now nearly 10 years old and with numerous hits, looks to close its biggest fund by far". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  3. ^ a b "Pejman Mar Ventures, L.P. SEC Registration". sec.report. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  4. ^ a b Loizos, Connie (2016-08-16). "Pejman Mar rebrands as it unveils a $75 million new fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  5. ^ a b c Konrad, Alex. "Their Venture Fund Was 'A Sign Of A Bubble.' Then They Turned $1.9 Million In DoorDash Into $440 Million". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  6. ^ Cai, Kenrick. "Inside Pear VC's Tiny Startup Accelerator That's Creating An Alternative To Y Combinator". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  7. ^ Rao, Leena (2012-08-21). "Revel Touch Raises $10M To Help Retailers Create Sleek Mobile Commerce Apps". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  8. ^ Review, MIT Technology. "Innovator Under 35: Maria Hershenson, 30". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  9. ^ Life, Kayhan (2021-04-07). "From Rug Dealing to Venture Capital: Meet Silicon Valley Superstar Pejman Nozad". KAYHAN LIFE. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  10. ^ Loizos, Connie (2016-04-18). "Meet VC Jeremy Fiance, UC Berkeley's 24-year-old superconnector". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  11. ^ "How UC Berkeley plans to take on Stanford in big startup game". bizjournals.com. 2015-09-04. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  12. ^ "Free Money for Student Tech Founders - David Teten". 2021-07-27. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  13. ^ ParlayMe (2021-04-27). "After a decade of VC influence at Stanford, what's next?". ParlayMe. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  14. ^ a b "El fondo Pear VC elige Barcelona para expandirse en Europa". The New Barcelona Post (in European Spanish). 2021-12-27. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  15. ^ "Pear VC's Mar Hershenson is Doubling Down on Zero Stage Investing". 500 Global. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  16. ^ Heater, Brian (2019-03-14). "AI photo startup Polarr raises an $11.5 million Series A". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  17. ^ Korosec, Kirsten (2022-04-25). "Discuss investor opportunities at TC Sessions: Mobility 2022". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  18. ^ "The Midas List 2021". Forbes. 2021-11-16. Archived from the original on 2021-11-16. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  19. ^ "Midas Seed 2022". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  20. ^ a b "The Midas List 2022". Forbes. 2022-09-19. Archived from the original on 2022-09-19. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  21. ^ Loizos, Connie (2022-03-03). "Instacart's head of talent just left to join Pear VC; here's his take on the market". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  22. ^ "Venture capitalists urge startups to withdraw funds from crisis-laden Silicon Valley Bank". CNBC. 2023-03-10. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  23. ^ "DoorDash-Backer Pear Raises $432 Million for Seed Venture Fund". www.bloomberg.com. Bloomberg. 2023.
  24. ^ "Pear VC closes oversubscribed $432m seed fund". Private Equity Wire. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  25. ^ "DoorDash-backer Pear VC closes largest fund to date". www.venturecapitaljournal.com. 2023.
  26. ^ "Pear VC". Stanford Graduate School of Business. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  27. ^ Cai, Kenrick. "Inside Pear VC's Tiny Startup Accelerator That's Creating An Alternative To Y Combinator". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
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