Today we’re announcing Fund V, a $333 million fund that brings Pear to more than $1.1 billion in assets under management, along with three new General Partners.
Thirteen years ago, the two of us sat at Coupa Café in Palo Alto and started talking about building a venture firm.
We did not have a big platform. We did not have a brand. We certainly did not have billions of dollars.
We had one simple belief: the best time to meet a founder is before everyone else knows they are great.
That belief became Pear.
In the beginning, it was very personal. We met founders wherever we could. Coffee shops. Dorm rooms. Small offices. Friends’ introductions. We spent time with people before there was a polished pitch deck, before there was revenue, and sometimes before there was even a company.
We wanted to be the first believer.
Building around founders
Over the years, that idea became much bigger than either of us imagined. We were fortunate to back founders behind companies like DoorDash, Gusto, Guardant Health, Vanta, Listen Labs, and many others. Some became public companies. Some became category leaders. Some were acquired. Many are still in the middle of their journey.
But what we are most proud of is not any one company.
It is what we built around founders.
Today, Pear sees thousands of opportunities every year across our pre-seed and seed practices. We built PearX, university programs, hackathons, founder communities, and two studios where people can come together and build. We built an engineering team that creates our own tools and uses AI to help us navigate the enormous amount of deal flow we see. We built a founder services team to help with talent, go-to-market, marketing, and fundraising when founders need more than a check.
We also spend time with some of the most talented students in the country, often years before they start companies. All of it comes back to the same thing: being close to the moment when an idea becomes a company.
That is still the part of venture capital we love most.
There is something magical about sitting with a founder when almost nothing exists yet. No press. No big financing round. No certainty. Just a person with conviction, a problem they cannot stop thinking about, and the courage to start.
That is real venture capital to us.
Backing founders before it’s obvious
The industry around us has changed enormously. Funds have become larger. Companies raise more money, faster. The hottest deals can attract a dozen firms almost overnight.
We decided a long time ago that we did not want to build Pear around chasing what was already obvious. We wanted to back founders before the world knew their names.
Across Pear, we now see thousands of companies every year through our pre-seed and seed practices, giving us an early view into what the next generation of founders is building.at gives us something we did not have when we started: an early look at what the next generation of founders is thinking about.
We can see where technical talent is moving. Which new categories are beginning to form. How founding teams are changing. And then we can do the most important thing: meet the people behind those ideas.
This is the Pear model. Find extraordinary people early. Believe before everyone else does. Help when things are messy. Stay close when things are going well. And earn the right to be part of the journey.
Fund V and the next generation of Pear
Today, we are announcing Pear Fund V, a $333 million fund.
The number matters less to us than what it represents. Thirteen years of building. Thousands of founders who trusted us with their ideas. Limited Partners who believed in the two of us before Pear had a track record. And a team that has grown far beyond us.
Alongside Fund V, something especially meaningful is also happening: Arash Afrakhteh, Ajay Kamat, and Shravan Reddy are becoming General Partners at Pear.
- Arash joined Pear in 2020 and invests in enterprise and B2B companies across AI/ML, cloud, and data infrastructure. He previously co-founded Cariden Technologies, acquired by Cisco in 2012.
- Ajay joined Pear in 2015 and invests in consumer, fintech, and healthcare companies. He previously co-founded Wedding Party, a Pear-backed company acquired by Instacart, and served as its CEO.
- Shravan joined Pear in 2024 and invests in AI infrastructure, robotics, and vertical AI companies. He previously co-founded Pixelapse, acquired by Dropbox, and led engineering teams at Stripe.
When we started the firm, we were mostly thinking about the founders we wanted to back. Somewhere along the way, we also started building an institution that could outlast us. Seeing a new generation of leaders emerge inside Pear is one of the things we are proudest of.
Still at day zero
People sometimes ask whether we ever imagined Pear becoming what it is today. The answer is no. But we do think we knew what we wanted it to feel like: close to founders, curious, hungry, personal, willing to believe early.
Thirteen years later, those things matter to us even more.
But in many ways, we still think of Pear as the two of us sitting at Coupa Café, talking about a founder we cannot stop thinking about. That part has not changed.
And despite everything we have built, we still feel like we are at the beginning.
Day zero.
– Mar & Pejman
Share
