Pear VC closes $333M Fund V to back founders at day zero
What's the deal? Pear VCDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has closed its $333 million Fund V, lifting the early-stage firm's total assets under management above $1.1 billion. The majority of the fund will go to new pre-seed and seed investments, deployed over roughly two and a half years, with reserves set aside for follow-on rounds in breakout companies.
What's the endgame? Founded in 2013, Pear aims to reach founders before their potential is obvious — sometimes before a company exists. Its flagship PearX program runs twice a year and accepts fewer than 1% of applicants; the Summer 2026 cohort alone drew more than 6,000 applications.
Why now? "Capital is becoming commoditized," said Mar Hershenson, founding managing partner at Pear. "Access is not. AI now lets anyone build what once took dozens of engineers."
The firm argues that as capital concentrates in fewer, larger funds chasing companies once they break out, proximity to founders at the earliest stage is the real edge.
Pear says about 80% of PearX companies go on to raise institutional seed rounds, in some cases at valuations up to 10 times its entry price. Early bets include DoorDash, Gusto, Vanta, Guardant Health, and Affinity.
Alongside the close, Pear promoted Arash Afrakhteh, Ajay Kamat, and Shravan Reddy to general partner. "Thirteen years after starting the firm, we now have a new generation of General Partners who have grown with Pear," founding managing partners Pejman Nozad and Hershenson said.
The signal: As late-stage money piles into obvious winners, Pear is betting that the durable advantage sits at day zero — finding founders before the market does.
Read more: markets.financialcontent.com
Image credit: Pear Ventures
