After spending more than a decade carving out a prominent reputation as a venture capitalist at established firms like LocalGlobe and Impact X Capital Partners, Yvonne Bajela has officially taken the entrepreneurial leap. During her tenure as an investor, Bajela built a formidable track record by placing early bets on companies that would go on to achieve unicorn status, including prominent fintech player Wise, insurance innovator Marshmellow, and autonomous vehicle and robotaxi venture Mooves. On Tuesday, she announced the official close of her own debut venture fund, Evertrue, securing an oversubscribed $17 million for Fund I.
For Bajela, the transition from backing founders to launching her own firm represents a natural, albeit bold, evolution in her career. "After more than a decade backing founders who bet everything on their ideas, it felt like time to make a bet of my own," Bajela said in an interview discussing the launch. "I wanted the independence to act on those convictions and build something that reflected my own approach to investing."
Evertrue has already hit the ground running, having quietly backed seven companies prior to the formal announcement. The firm will focus primarily on early-stage investing across the United Kingdom and continental Europe. According to Bajela, the fund’s average check size will hover around £350,000, with an ultimate goal to invest in at least 20 companies over the next three years.
The launch of Evertrue comes at a fascinating inflection point for the broader technology sector. Bajela points to the ongoing artificial intelligence boom as a key catalyst that convinced her that now was the exact right time to strike out on her own. The rapid advancement of modern technology has fundamentally shifted the economics of launching a company, while simultaneously unlocking unprecedented opportunities for early-stage investors positioned at the ground floor. "The ability to build has been democratized," Bajela noted, reflecting on the lowering barriers to entry for technical founders. "But the ability to build something enduring remains rare."
The timing also aligns with a broader renaissance within the U.K. technology ecosystem. London and surrounding innovation hubs have captured global attention, with districts like King’s Cross firmly cementing their status as world-leading AI hubs. Meanwhile, homegrown success stories such as Revolut, Synthesia, ElevenLabs, and the Jeff Bezos-backed CuspAI are redefining what it means to scale rapidly and attract massive international investment in the U.K. market. For an experienced investor like Bajela, this dynamic moment presents a prime opportunity to identify and secure stakes in the next generation of top-tier British talent before they hit mainstream prominence. "I think more globally significant businesses will emerge from a wider range of starting points," she observed.
Yet, despite the palpable optimism surrounding the U.K.’s tech sector, launching a first-time venture fund remains an uphill battle in the current economic climate. In the United States, early-stage fundraising has frequently been characterized as a barbell market, where limited partner capital is heavily concentrated at the top among established mega-funds and veteran managers with multi-decade track records.
The landscape for emerging fund managers in the U.K. and Europe has proven to be somewhat more resilient, even if the fundraising trail remains grueling. According to PitchBook data tracking venture activity through the end of September, emerging fund managers in the region have raised a combined $7.4 billion, already surpassing the $6.2 billion they managed to secure across the entirety of 2025.
Even with favorable regional trends, Bajela admitted that securing commitments from institutional investors and private backers was a demanding process. For her, the psychological toll of fundraising often stemmed not from immediate rejections, but from prolonged negotiations. The most difficult moments, she recalled, were not the outright "nos," but rather "the ones that came after months of conversations and significant time invested, only for the answer to ultimately be no." She emphasized a deep empathy for founders navigating similar hurdles, adding, "Time is one of the most valuable resources a founder has, and a prolonged process without clarity has a real cost."
Despite the friction inherent in early-stage fundraising, Evertrue successfully secured commitments from five key institutional backers. Among them are the British Business Bank and Basecamp—the dedicated fund-of-funds vehicle managed by investment firm Phoenix Court, which is also the parent organization of LocalGlobe. Evertrue’s inclusion in the market was bolstered by the British Business Bank’s £400 million Investor Pathways capital initiative, a sweeping program that allocated a combined £90 million to 10 first-time fund managers.
Interestingly, Bajela revealed that Evertrue’s initial target was to raise around $13 million. However, driven by unexpectedly robust investor demand, the firm ultimately found itself oversubscribed. Rather than bowing to pressure to expand the final size of the fund by accepting every dollar offered, Bajela made the strategic decision to turn down additional investors.
"Fund size is a strategic decision, not a measure of success in itself," she explained, underscoring a disciplined philosophy that values portfolio focus over sheer assets under management. "I wanted enough capital to build meaningful positions in my highest-conviction investments without creating pressure to deploy capital simply because it was available."
In terms of geographic distribution, approximately 80% of Evertrue’s limited partners are based in the U.K., with the remaining investors scattered across Europe, Asia, and the United States. Bajela noted that this international footprint is a direct reflection of the professional relationships she has cultivated over more than a decade of cross-border investing. It also mirrors the global ambitions inherent in the fund’s strategy, particularly given that a significant portion of British founders immediately set their sights on expansion across the Atlantic. Notably, more than half of Evertrue’s existing portfolio already operates within the U.S. market.
Operationally, Evertrue will primarily target opportunities spanning artificial intelligence and financial technology. When evaluating prospective founders, Bajela looks for specific qualitative traits that signal long-term resilience and market dominance. She stated that she is particularly drawn to individuals who possess a unique, differentiated insight into a complex problem, an unusual capacity for rapid execution, and the overarching ambition to build an enterprise that far outlives its initial product offering.
"I also pay attention to the distance a founder has traveled, what they’ve overcome, and how that has shaped their perspective," Bajela continued.
That perspective is informed by her own diverse global career path. Before establishing herself as a cornerstone of the British venture capital community, Bajela lived in Japan while serving as a senior investment manager at Mitsui, and she originally kicked off her professional life as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. Throughout her wide-ranging career across global financial capitals, she has observed firsthand a fundamental truth about innovation: talent and ambition are universally distributed, but the right backing can turn localized brilliance into a global institution.
With Evertrue now fully closed and deployed into its initial cohort of companies, Bajela is focused on the long-term legacy of her debut fund. "I want Evertrue to be known for the quality of the founders I back and the businesses they go on to build," she said.
