Quick Summary
- Evertrue closed its first fund at $17 million, above its initial target of about $13 million.
- The fund has already backed seven companies and plans to support at least 20 over the next three years.
- Bajela expects to focus on early-stage AI and fintech businesses, with average investments around £350,000.
Yvonne Bajela has closed a $17 million debut fund for Evertrue, the venture firm she founded to invest in early-stage companies across the United Kingdom and Europe. TechCrunch reported the close on November 3. The fund was oversubscribed, exceeding an initial target of around $13 million, and has already backed seven companies. Bajela plans to support at least 20 businesses over the next three years.
Evertrue’s first-fund outline
- Fund size: $17 million
- Average investment: about £350,000
- Portfolio target: at least 20 companies
- Geographic focus: the UK and Europe
- Initial portfolio: seven companies
A new fund built around early-stage bets
Bajela spent more than a decade working in venture capital, most recently at LocalGlobe and Impact X Capital Partners. Her earlier investments included companies such as Wise, Marshmallow and Moove, which later became prominent in their respective markets. Evertrue gives her the ability to make investment decisions under her own strategy rather than through an established fund with a broader partner structure.
The fund expects an average cheque of about £350,000 and plans to back at least 20 companies over three years. It has already invested in seven businesses, although the report does not identify every portfolio company or disclose the full amount deployed. The fund will focus on early-stage opportunities, where a relatively small initial investment can provide a company with capital to build its first product, hire a team or test a market.
The investment thesis covers AI and fintech
Bajela said Evertrue will invest mainly in AI and financial technology. She believes new tools have changed the economics of starting a company, allowing smaller teams to build products that previously required larger engineering organisations. That creates opportunities for investors, but it also increases the number of companies competing for attention and makes it harder to distinguish a durable business from a short-lived product trend.
Her stated selection criteria focus on founders with a distinctive understanding of a problem, the ability to execute and the ambition to build beyond an initial product. She also said she pays attention to the experiences that have shaped a founder’s perspective. Those are qualitative measures rather than a formal screening formula, and the fund will still need to assess customer demand, market size, competition and the ability to generate revenue.
Why the fund stopped at $17 million
Evertrue secured five institutional backers, including the British Business Bank and Basecamp, the fund-of-funds associated with Phoenix Court. Around 80 per cent of its limited partners are based in the UK, with the remainder spread across Europe, Asia and the United States. Bajela said she chose not to expand the fund beyond $17 million even though more capital was available.
That decision reflects a view that fund size should match the number and scale of investments a manager wants to make. Raising more money can increase the management fee base, but it can also create pressure to deploy capital into deals that do not meet the investment strategy. Evertrue’s plan is to build meaningful positions in a limited number of early-stage companies. The fund’s performance will depend on the quality of those investments and the ability of its portfolio companies to reach later funding rounds or sustainable growth.
Evertrue’s limited fund size may allow Bajela to stay focused on early-stage companies where a £350,000 investment can make a meaningful difference. It also means the firm must be selective about follow-on commitments and reserve enough capital for the strongest portfolio businesses. A fund that backs 20 or more startups will inevitably have a mix of outcomes, and some successful investments may account for a large share of returns. The oversubscribed close is an encouraging start, but the fund’s performance will take years to assess. The first visible test is whether the seven existing investments can reach their next milestones.
Evertrue’s first portfolio will provide a clearer view of the fund’s investment style than the headline size alone. Early-stage funds often take years to show results because companies need time to find product-market fit and raise follow-on capital. Bajela’s ability to help founders recruit, sell and secure later financing will be an important part of the firm’s value.