Pear's third seed fund stands at more than twice the size of its precursor, having secured the continued backing of University of Chicago.

US-based venture capital firm Pear has raised $160m for its third early-stage fund involving University of Chicago and unnamed backers as limited partners, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
The amount represents a final close, more than doubling the size of Pear’s last venture fund.
Formed in 2013 as Pejman Mar Ventures, Pear backs pre-seed or seed rounds on an industry-agnostic basis, generally writing initial cheques sized between $250,000 and $3m.
Almost 50% of its investees were founded by students or graduates, from institutions including Stanford University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California, Berkeley.
The firm also operates an accelerator and holds events to hone the skills of company founders.
Pear’s exits have included early cancer detection test company Guardant Health, which floated above its range to raise $238m in an October 2018 initial public offering, according to our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
The company’s current portfolio includes food delivery service DoorDash, as well as more recent additions such as cloud data security business Nightfall and at-home genetic testing infrastructure provider IxLayer.
University of Chicago was a limited partner in both of Pear’s previous funds, including the $50m Pejman Mar I vehicle closed in March 2015 and a second $75m vehicle debuted the following year, whose LPs also included life insurance provider New York Life Insurance and asset manager TrueBridge Capital.