Yvonne Bajela, a veteran VC with over a decade of experience at firms like LocalGlobe and Impact X Capital Partners, has officially closed an oversubscribed $17 million Fund I for her new venture, Evertrue. The fund, announced Tuesday, will focus on early-stage investments across the U.K. and Europe, with an average check size of around £350,000. Bajela plans to back at least 20 companies over the next three years, because nothing says "I'm independent now" like writing a bunch of small checks and hoping one of them turns into Wise.
Bajela's track record includes bets on now-unicorn companies like the fintech Wise, the insurance company Marshmellow, and robotaxi Mooves, which presumably is not a typo for "moves" but rather a startup that moves things with robots. After more than a decade backing founders who bet everything on their ideas, she said it felt like time to make a bet of her own. "I wanted the independence to act on those convictions and build something that reflected my own approach to investing," she said, which is VC-speak for "I got tired of committee meetings."
Unsurprisingly, the AI boom helped convince her the timing was right. Not only has it changed the economics of launching a company, she said, but it has created new opportunities for early-stage investors like herself. "The ability to build has been democratized," she said. "But the ability to build something enduring remains rare." In other words: everyone and their dog can now spin up an AI startup, but only a few will survive the inevitable pivot to consulting.
The U.K.'s startup scene is indeed having a moment. King's Cross is one of the world's top AI hubs, and companies like Revolut, Synthesia, ElevenLabs, and the Bezos-backed CuspAI are redefining what it means to scale and attract success in the U.K. market. For Bajela, this means an opportunity to snap up investments in the next generation of top British talent early. "I think more globally significant businesses will emerge from a wider range of starting points," she said, which is a polite way of saying "Silicon Valley isn't the only game in town anymore."
However, it's a tough market for emerging fund managers. In the U.S., it's been described as a barbell market where capital is concentrated at the top and among firms led by those with solid track records. Things may be slightly rosier in the U.K., as PitchBook data through the end of September shows that emerging fund managers in the region raised $7.4 billion, already surpassing the $6.2 billion they raised in all of 2025. Yes, you read that right: 2025 isn't even over yet, and they've already beaten last year's total. Take that, barbell.
Still, Bajela said fundraising was a grind. The hardest rejections weren't the outright nos. "They were the ones that came after months of conversations and significant time invested, only for the answer to ultimately be no," she said. "Time is one of the most valuable resources a founder has, and a prolonged process without clarity has a real cost." A lesson for all those LPs who ghosted her: just say no and move on.
Evertrue nabbed five institutional backers, including the British Business Bank and Basecamp, the fund-of-funds of the investment firm Phoenix Court, which is also home to LocalGlobe. Evertrue was part of the £400 million British Business Bank's Investor Pathways capital initiative, which saw it pour £90 million to 10 first-time fund managers. Bajela said Evertrue wanted to raise around $13 million but saw a lot of investor interest. She decided to turn down additional investors rather than expand the fund size. "Fund size is a strategic decision, not a measure of success in itself," she said. "I wanted enough capital to build meaningful positions in my highest-conviction investments without creating pressure to deploy capital simply because it was available." A refreshing stance in an industry where more money often just means more problems.
Around 80% of Evertrue's LPs are U.K. based, with the rest scattered across Europe, Asia, and the U.S. She said her international LP base represents the relationships she's built "over more than a decade investing across markets." It also reflects the fund's global ambition, especially since so many British founders keep their eyes on a U.S. expansion; more than half her portfolio already operates in the U.S. Because nothing says "British startup" like setting up shop in Delaware.
Evertrue will invest mainly across AI and fintech, she said, adding that she's "particularly interested in people with a unique insight into a problem, an unusual ability to execute and the ambition to build something much bigger than their initial product." She also pays attention to "the distance a founder has traveled, what they've overcome, and how that has shaped their perspective." Which is a nice way of saying she wants to see your scar tissue, not just your pitch deck.
Bajela's own distance traveled includes living in Japan as a senior investment manager at Mistusi and starting her career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. Throughout her career, she said she's seen how "widely distributed ambition and talent are." "I want Evertrue to be known for the quality of the founders I back and the businesses they go on to build." Which, in VC terms, is the equivalent of saying "I want to be known for the exits, not the entries."