Pear VC

Pear VC (formerly Pejman Mar Ventures) is one of Silicon Valley's most respected pre-seed and seed specialist venture firms, founded in August 2013 by Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson and rebranded from Pejman Mar to Pear VC in August 2016 with the launch of its $75 million Fund II. Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the firm leads rounds and has scaled its fund platform from a $50 million first fund to $160 million (Fund III) and an oversubscribed $432 million Fund IV closed in 2023, bringing cumulative capital raised to roughly $700 million. The 25-person team includes Founding Managing Partners Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson and Partner Kathleen Estreich. Pear operates an explicit three-stage framework covering pre-seed through Series A and has built distinctive sourcing programs including PearX, Pear Pre-Seed Ready, and an Emerging Managers in Residence program launched in September 2024. Across 263 investments Pear has seeded three public companies: DoorDash, Guardant Health, and Senti Biosciences. Additional billion-dollar breakouts from the portfolio include Gusto, Branch, Aurora Solar, and Vanta. In 2025 the firm made 34 new investments, with seven more in the first quarter of 2026. The firm has recorded 27 portfolio exits to date, including BioAge Labs and Voyage AI. The most recent liquidity event was the exit of Breakout Audio in May 2025. Pear VC combines high-frequency seed deployment with deep programmatic engagement, running accelerator-style programs that give the firm proprietary access to emerging founders before they reach the market. The result is a sourcing advantage built over a decade of community investment in Stanford, MIT, and the broader Silicon Valley founder ecosystem.