Pear VC

Quick read

Pear VC is a pre-seed and seed venture firm founded in 2013 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California. It runs PearX, a 12-week hands-on accelerator, alongside its investing arm, and backs founders from idea stage through to institutional rounds. With ~$800M AUM and notable early bets on DoorDash, Dropbox, Guardant Health, and Gusto, co-founders Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson have each appeared multiple times on the Forbes Midas List.

Key facts

Founded

2013

Founders

Pejman Nozad, Mar Hershenson

Employees

11-50

Sectors

generalist, ai, saas, fintech, healthcare, biotech, climate, enterprise

Website

pear.vc

Investment thesis

Pear VC writes pre-seed and seed checks ($150K–$4M) into technology startups across AI, SaaS, enterprise, fintech, healthcare, biotech, and climate, pairing capital with in-house recruiting, go-to-market coaching, and accelerator infrastructure (PearX) to help founders build category-defining companies from day one.

Recent activity

• Sep 2025product
  Opened applications for PearX W26 cohort, starting January 2026, with a stated focus on AI infrastructure, agentic AI, healthcare, biotech, and robotics. pear.vc
• Sep 2024investment
  TrueMeter (formerly EcoTrove), a PearX W25 portfolio company, raised a $4M Seed round led by Ulu Ventures with Pear VC participating, bringing total funding to $5.5M. pear.vc
• 2024product
  Launched the 'Emerging Manager in Residence' program, investing $250K in each selected emerging fund and giving participants access to Pear deal flow, office space, and LP introductions. Inaugural cohort included Sarah Smith Fund, Success Venture Partners, and Comma Capital. mytechcompanion.com
• Feb 2023leadership
  Promoted Vivien Ho, Keith Bender, and Addison Leong to Partner. x.com
• 2022leadership
  Matt Birnbaum, former Head of Talent Acquisition at Instacart, joined as Talent Partner to support early hiring for portfolio companies. pear.vc
• 2022leadership
  Naomi Chetrit Band joined as Head of Dorm and Senior Associate on the investment team, leading Pear's student founder program across university campuses. pear.vc
• 2022press
  Pejman Nozad ranked #2 on Forbes' 2022 Midas Seed List and #15 on the main Midas List; Mar Hershenson ranked #30 on the Midas List. en.wikipedia.org

Notable investments

• TrueMeter (formerly EcoTrove)SeedSep 2024pear.vc
• DoorDashPre-seeden.wikipedia.org
• Guardant HealthEarly stageen.wikipedia.org
• GustoEarly stageen.wikipedia.org
• VantaEarly stageboringbusinessnerd.com
• AffinityEarly stageboringbusinessnerd.com
• Viz.aiEarly stageboringbusinessnerd.com
• BranchEarly stageen.wikipedia.org
• DropboxEarly stagecapboard.io
• Aurora SolarEarly stagepear.vc

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• Pejman Nozad · Founding Managing Partner
• Mar Hershenson · Founding Managing Partner
• Vivien Ho · Partner
• Keith Bender · Partner
• Addison Leong · Partner
• Matt Birnbaum · Talent Partner
• Naomi Chetrit Band · Head of Dorm / Senior Associate
  LinkedIn

Sources

• Pear VC – Wikipedia
• PearX W26 apps now open – Pear VC
• Inside PearX: TrueMeter (W25) raises Seed – Pear VC
• Pear VC Launches Residency Program – MyTechCompanion
• Pear VC – Boring Business Nerd
• Pejman Nozad – Pear VC
• Welcoming Matt Birnbaum – Pear VC
• Welcoming Naomi Chetrit Band – Pear VC
• Pear VC on X

Other VCs in United States

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• Benchmark Capital · Early-stage VC, San Francisco·
• Founders Fund · Contrarian VC, San Francisco·
• Khosla Ventures · Multi-stage VC, Menlo Park·
• Greylock Partners · Early-stage VC, Menlo Park

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