Yvonne Bajela knows it's time to establish her own fund. She has been in the venture capital industry for over a decade and has recently worked at LocalGlobe and Impact X Capital Partners. She has invested in companies that have since become unicorns, including fintech firm Wise, insurance company Marshmellow, and autonomous taxi company Mooves.

On Tuesday, she announced that the fund she founded, Evertrue, had officially completed the fundraising for its first phase, which exceeded the target of $17 million in subscriptions.

She said, "After supporting founders who bet everything on their own ideas for over a decade, I feel it's time to place a bet on myself as well. I want to have independence, to act according to these beliefs, and to build an organization that reflects my own approach to investing."

She said that this institution, which has already invested in 7 companies, will focus on early-stage investments in the UK and Europe, with an average investment of about £350,000 per deal, and plans to support at least 20 companies over the next three years.

Perhaps not surprisingly, she said that this wave of AI enthusiasm helped her realize that now is the right time to establish her own fund. She mentioned that this has not only changed the economic model for starting a company but also created new opportunities for early investors like her. "The ability to build products and companies has been democratized," she said, "but the ability to create sustainable businesses remains scarce."

As previously reported by TechCrunch, the startup ecosystem in the UK is experiencing a golden age. For example, Cross of King has become one of the world's top AI centers, while companies such as Revolut, Synthesia, ElevenLabs, and CuspAI (which has received support from Bezos) are redefining what it means to achieve scalability and success in the UK market. For someone like Bajela, this moment represents an opportunity to invest early in the next generation of top British talent. She said, "I believe that more companies of global significance will emerge from a broader range of backgrounds."

However, this is also a challenging market for new fund managers. In the United States, it is described as a “polarized” market, with capital concentrating in the hands of top institutions and funds led by those who already have a solid track record of performance. The situation in the UK may be slightly better. PitchBook Data as of the end of September shows that new fund managers in this region raised a total of $7.4 billion, which exceeds the $6.2 billion they raised throughout 2025.

Nevertheless, Bajela indicates that the fundraising process is still very challenging. The most difficult rejections are not necessarily those where one is directly told "no." She says, "The hardest part is when after months of conversation and a significant investment of time, the final answer is still no. Time is one of the most precious resources for founders, and a lengthy process lacking clarity comes at a real cost."

However, she stated that the fund still attracted support from 5 institutional backers, including British Business Bank and Basecamp. Basecamp is a master fund under the investment company Phoenix Court, and Phoenix Court is also the platform where LocalGlobe is located. Evertrue is part of a £400 million capital plan by the British commercial bank Investor Pathways; this plan invested £90 million in the managers of 10 newly established funds. Bajela mentioned that Evertrue originally hoped to raise about $13 million, but there was a high level of interest from investors. She decided to reject additional investors rather than expand the scale of the fund.

She said, "The size of a fund is a strategic decision; it is not in itself a measure of success. I hope to have sufficient capital to build meaningful positions in the investments I am most confident about, without feeling the pressure to invest just because the money is available."

Approximately 80% of the limited partners come from the UK, with the remainder distributed across Europe, Asia, and the United States. She stated that the international foundation reflects the relationships she has built over more than a decade of cross-market investing. She also mentioned that this reflects the fund's global ambitions, especially considering that many British founders have always had American expansion in mind; indeed, more than half of the companies in her portfolio are already operating in the US.

She stated that Evertrue will mainly invest in AI and the fintech sector, and added that she "is particularly interested in those who have unique insights into certain issues, possess extraordinary execution capabilities, and are committed to building businesses that far exceed the scale of their initial products."

She then said, "I also pay attention to how far the founders have come, what obstacles they have overcome, and how these experiences have shaped their perspectives."

She once served as a senior investment manager at Mistusi in Japan and also began her career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. She stated that throughout her professional career, she has seen that "ambition and talent are actually widely distributed."

She said, "I hope that Evertrue will be remembered for the quality of its founders that I supported, as well as the companies they went on to build."