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HedgeCo.Net \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HedgeCo.Net \u2014 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 \u2026 Continue reading