PearX, a selective 12-week accelerator run by Pear VC, recently hosted its biannual demo day in San Francisco, showcasing 16 early-stage startups to top venture capitalists. Unlike larger accelerators such as Y Combinator, PearX limits its cohort size to about 20 startups and offers significantly higher investments, sometimes up to $2 million, while keeping participant details confidential until demo day. Previous PearX companies include Known, a voice AI dating app, and Andera, which automates corporate audits and secured a $37 million Series A this summer from Lightspeed.

Five startups stood out at this latest event due to their innovative technologies and business models. Speridlabs is developing spatial foundational models designed for robotics, gaming, and special effects, creating a persistent 3D geometry system called Mundus that allows more flexible interaction than competitors like Runway or Google’s Genie. Saia is working on a cutting-edge chip that runs AI inference directly from flash storage, promising faster speeds with significantly lower power consumption compared to Nvidia’s Jetson and aiming for mass production by 2028.

Ren offers a highly secure AI personal assistant that keeps user data primarily on-device or within a secured private cloud environment. It differentiates itself by using fully automated voice calls without any human operators, enhancing user privacy compared to rivals like Muse and Instinct. Veros is automating the complex process of trust and estate planning using AI, currently managing $250 million in assets under management and seeking regulatory approval to become a trust company, aiming to streamline wealth management services.

Lastly, Datum provides AI-powered tools for industrial design engineering by indexing a company’s entire library of 3D parts and designs. It uses proprietary technology called Geometric Fingerprint to identify components by shape, helping companies accelerate physical product development through better reuse and automation. Pear VC co-founder Mar Hershenson, a semiconductor engineer, expressed particular enthusiasm for startups like Saia led by young founders, highlighting PearX’s role in backing ambitious projects in hardware and AI.