Yvonne Bajela has closed a $17m debut fund for Evertrue Capital, which will write pre-seed cheques of about £350,000 into UK and European AI startups.
The firm backs artificial intelligence and frontier technology companies at pre-seed, the earliest stage of startup funding, across the UK and Europe. Investors offered more than it set out to raise, making the fund oversubscribed.
Bajela is founder and general partner of Evertrue Capital. She was a partner at Phoenix Court.
Evertrue plans to back a minimum of around twenty startups over the next three years, the fund said. Rather than divide its capital among many startups, it’ll lead and co-invest in a handful of deals annually, supporting founders before consensus emerges.
One of the backers is Phoenix Court, the parent of venture firms LocalGlobe and Latitude. Its money came through Basecamp, the fund of funds it runs for new managers. The group is best recognized by the name of its seed-stage fund, LocalGlobe.
Investors backing the fund include Bootstrap 4F, which operates the Invest in Women Taskforce's fund, as well as Allocator One, Better Society Capital and the British Business Bank.
Founders, operators and other investors in Evertrue’s network put money in as well. The firm said they’ll also help the companies it backs.
The best moment to invest is before the market has proof.
What pre-seed, oversubscribed and fund of funds mean
- Pre-seed The earliest stage of startup funding.
- Oversubscribed Investors offered more money than the fund set out to raise.
- Fund of funds A fund that puts money into other funds. Phoenix Court runs Basecamp for new managers.
Two-thirds of 2024 funds aimed under $10m
Securing capital has grown more difficult for solo fund managers. Decile Group data show that in 2024, two-thirds of newly launched venture funds set out to raise under $10m. At $17m, Evertrue’s fund is small, though not unusually so for a first-time fund.
So far, the fund has made seven investments, half in companies already operating in the US even though its stated patch is the UK and Europe.
The portfolio is short: Revion builds AI agents for the car industry; Poindexter Labs is an AI lab; Zuba is a fintech building infrastructure for global businesses; and Zaro is a shared knowledge layer for companies.
Revion, which is backed by Y Combinator, took its first cheque from Evertrue.
Yvonne was our first cheque and backed us from day zero,
Yvonne saw what we were building before it was easy to explain,
What we know
- The raise was oversubscribed, meaning investors offered more than the fund set out to raise.
- Phoenix Court backed the fund through Basecamp, its fund of funds for new managers.
Still unclear
- How much of the $17m came from each investor
- Whether the fund is now at its hard cap
- How many deals a year the firm counts as a small number
- The stage and size of the seven portfolio companies' rounds
- Whether Bajela runs the fund alone or with partners
- Whether the dollar fund size and sterling cheque size reflect currency hedging or reporting convention
From Goldman Sachs to her own fund
Bajela began her career at Goldman Sachs, then moved to Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co., investing in Wise, before becoming a founding member of Impact X Capital. Evertrue says she led a seed investment in insurer Marshmallow there. At Phoenix Court, her investments included Moove.
Over the past decade, I've backed founders who went on to build billion-dollar companies, and almost none of them looked obvious at the start.
Bajela calls her approach problem expertise. She seeks founders with first-hand or deep knowledge of the challenges they aim to solve.
The ones I'm drawn to understand a problem deeply, often from lived experience, and have the conviction and discipline to build around it. They don't always fit a familiar pattern, but their insight gives them an edge others can't yet see.
She says she will invest in founders who know their problem well and have the discipline to develop a solution before consensus forms.
