Pear VC explained

Pear VC
Former Name:Pejman Mar
Type:Private
Industry:Financial, Venture Capital, startup accelerator
Founder:Pejman Nozad, Mar Hershenson
Hq Location:Menlo Park, California, USA
Key People:Pejman Nozad, Mar Hershenson

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 before relocating to Menlo Park.[1]

History

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.[12] [13]

Pejman Mar rebranded as Pear VC in 2016. Pear VC was one of the companies backing DoorDash prior to its launch. Other companies Pear VC has supported include Guardant Health,[14] Gusto,[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.

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]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Bradshaw . Kate . Venture capital firm has leased historic Oasis building . 2022-09-10 . www.almanacnews.com . en.
  2. Web site: Loizos . Connie . 2022-05-21 . Pear, now nearly 10 years old and with numerous hits, looks to close its biggest fund by far . 2022-09-10 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  3. Web site: Pejman Mar Ventures, L.P. SEC Registration . 2022-09-10 . sec.report.
  4. Web site: Loizos . Connie . 2016-08-16 . Pejman Mar rebrands as it unveils a $75 million new fund . 2022-09-10 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  5. Web site: Konrad . Alex . Their Venture Fund Was 'A Sign Of A Bubble.' Then They Turned $1.9 Million In DoorDash Into $440 Million . 2022-09-10 . Forbes . en.
  6. Web site: Cai . Kenrick . Inside Pear VC's Tiny Startup Accelerator That's Creating An Alternative To Y Combinator . 2023-06-19 . Forbes . en.
  7. Web site: Rao . Leena . 2012-08-21 . Revel Touch Raises $10M To Help Retailers Create Sleek Mobile Commerce Apps . 2022-09-22 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  8. Web site: Review . MIT Technology . Innovator Under 35: Maria Hershenson, 30 . 2022-09-22 . MIT Technology Review . en-us.
  9. Web site: Life . Kayhan . 2021-04-07 . From Rug Dealing to Venture Capital: Meet Silicon Valley Superstar Pejman Nozad . 2022-09-22 . KAYHAN LIFE . en-US.
  10. Web site: Loizos . Connie . 2016-04-18 . Meet VC Jeremy Fiance, UC Berkeley's 24-year-old superconnector . 2022-09-10 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  11. Web site: 2015-09-04 . How UC Berkeley plans to take on Stanford in big startup game . 2022-09-10 . bizjournals.com.
  12. Web site: 2021-07-27 . Free Money for Student Tech Founders - David Teten . 2022-09-10 . en-US.
  13. Web site: ParlayMe . 2021-04-27 . After a decade of VC influence at Stanford, what's next? . 2022-09-10 . ParlayMe . en.
  14. Web site: 2021-12-27 . El fondo Pear VC elige Barcelona para expandirse en Europa . 2022-09-10 . The New Barcelona Post . es-ES.
  15. Web site: Pear VC's Mar Hershenson is Doubling Down on Zero Stage Investing . 2022-09-10 . 500 Global . en.
  16. Web site: Heater . Brian . 2019-03-14 . AI photo startup Polarr raises an $11.5 million Series A . 2022-09-22 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  17. Web site: Korosec . Kirsten . 2022-04-25 . Discuss investor opportunities at TC Sessions: Mobility 2022 . 2022-09-10 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  18. Web site: 2021-11-16 . The Midas List 2021 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20211116052319/https://www.forbes.com/midas/ . 2021-11-16 . 2022-09-22 . Forbes.
  19. Web site: Midas Seed 2022 . 2022-09-22 . Forbes . en.
  20. Web site: 2022-09-19 . The Midas List 2022 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20220919095916/https://www.forbes.com/midas/ . 2022-09-19 . 2022-09-22 . Forbes.
  21. Web site: Loizos . Connie . 2022-03-03 . Instacart's head of talent just left to join Pear VC; here's his take on the market . 2022-09-22 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  22. Web site: 2023-03-10 . Venture capitalists urge startups to withdraw funds from crisis-laden Silicon Valley Bank . 2023-06-19 . CNBC . en.
  23. Web site: DoorDash-Backer Pear Raises $432 Million for Seed Venture Fund. 2023. www.bloomberg.com. Bloomberg.
  24. Web site: Pear VC closes oversubscribed $432m seed fund. Private Equity Wire. 2 August 2023.
  25. Web site: DoorDash-backer Pear VC closes largest fund to date. 2023. www.venturecapitaljournal.com.
  26. Web site: Pear VC . 2022-09-10 . Stanford Graduate School of Business . en.
  27. Web site: Cai . Kenrick . Inside Pear VC's Tiny Startup Accelerator That's Creating An Alternative To Y Combinator . 2022-09-10 . Forbes . en.

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