Yvonne Bajela knew it was time to launch her own fund. She spent more than a decade as a VC, most recently at LocalGlobe and Impact X Capital Partners, where she made bets on now-unicorn companies like the fintech Wise, the insurance company Marshmallow, and robotaxi Mooves.
On Tuesday, she announced that her own fund, Evertrue Capital, officially closed an oversubscribed $17 million Fund I.
“After more than a decade backing founders who bet everything on their ideas, it felt like time to make a bet of my own,” she said. “I wanted the independence to act on those convictions and build something that reflected my own approach to investing.”
The firm, which has already backed seven companies, will focus on early-stage investing across the U.K. and Europe. The average check size will be around £350,000, she said, with plans to back at least 20 companies over the next three years.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, she said this AI boom helped her realize that this was the right time to launch her own fund. 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.”
As TechCrunch has previously reported, the U.K.’s startup scene is having a moment. King’s Cross, for example, is one of the world’s top AI hubs, while 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 someone like Bajela, this moment means there is 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.
