HedgeCo.Net — Pear VC announced Pear Fund V at $333 million, bringing the firm’s assets under management above $1.1 billion. The vehicle is smaller than Pear Fund IV, which closed at $432 million in 2023, and the firm said it remains focused on meeting founders at pre-seed and seed before categories become crowded.
Alongside the close, Pear promoted Arash Afrakhteh, Ajay Kamat and Shravan Reddy to general partner. Afrakhteh, who joined in 2020, invests in enterprise and B2B companies across AI/ML, cloud and data infrastructure. Kamat, who joined in 2015, covers consumer, fintech and healthcare. Reddy, who joined in 2024, focuses on AI infrastructure, robotics and vertical AI.
Co-founders Mar Hershenson and Pejman Nozad framed Fund V as continuity of Pear’s early-stage model rather than a chase of larger late-seed checks. The firm said it sees thousands of opportunities a year through pre-seed and seed practices, PearX, university programs and founder communities, and has backed companies including DoorDash, Gusto, Guardant Health and Vanta.
In a market where many venture vehicles have grown larger and deployment windows have lengthened, a deliberately smaller fund is a signal to limited partners that Pear intends faster, earlier deployment. That can matter for DPI timing if the firm continues to win ownership at the first institutional round.
For allocators, the GP promotions and the step-down from Fund IV’s size are the practical takeaways: Pear is institutionalizing a next leadership layer while keeping check sizes and stage focus aligned with day-zero discovery rather than crowded Series A auctions.