Analysis
Yvonne Bajela, a venture investor with more than a decade of experience, has closed her debut fund, Evertrue Fund I, at $17 million, TechCrunch reported on November 3, 2026 -- oversubscribed from an original target of roughly $13 million. The early-stage vehicle will back AI and fintech startups across the UK and Europe, with an average check size of about GBP350,000 and a plan to make at least 20 investments over three years.
What does Evertrue invest in
Evertrue is an early-stage venture fund targeting AI and fintech companies in the UK and broader European market, though Bajela has already shown she'll follow strong teams outside that geography: more than half of the fund's first seven portfolio companies are based in the US. The roughly GBP350,000 average check positions Evertrue as a seed-stage, high-conviction vehicle rather than a spray-and-pray fund -- a deliberate choice Bajela described to TechCrunch as wanting "enough capital to build meaningful positions in my highest-conviction investments without creating pressure to deploy capital simply because it was available."
Who is Yvonne Bajela
Bajela spent most of her career most recently at LocalGlobe and Impact X Capital Partners, two London-based early-stage firms, where her investments included fintech unicorn Wise and insurance startup Marshmallow. That track record at two well-regarded London seed funds is likely part of why Evertrue closed above target in a fundraising environment where, per Crunchbase News' own Q3 2026 data, deal counts for early-stage companies have been shrinking even as total dollars deployed hit records -- a trend Pulse examined in its own breakdown of the funding-amounts-vs-round-counts divide -- making LPs more selective about which new fund managers they back, not less.
“Roughly 80% of the fund's LP base is UK-based, with the remainder split across Europe, Asia and the US.”
Who backed Evertrue Fund I
Evertrue's $17 million came from five named institutional LPs, including the British Business Bank -- the UK government's economic development bank, which has become one of the most active LPs underwriting first-time European fund managers -- and Basecamp, the fund-of-funds vehicle run by Phoenix Court. Roughly 80% of the fund's LP base is UK-based, with the remainder split across Europe, Asia and the US.
Solo-GP funds in the current market
Evertrue's close lands in a UK and European early-stage market that has been thinning out even as headline VC dollar totals climb, driven by concentration in AI megarounds. Other UK and European early-stage vehicles that closed in 2026 include Creandum's $750 million Fund VIII and Entourage Ventures' EUR100 million Fund II -- both considerably larger than Evertrue, underscoring how unusual it is for a sub-$20 million solo-GP fund to close oversubscribed in the current fundraising climate rather than fall short or take longer than planned.
The reserves question
The test for Evertrue won't be this first close -- it'll be reserves. A $17 million fund making 20-plus seed investments at roughly GBP350,000 a check leaves little room to write meaningful follow-on checks once portfolio companies raise Series A or B rounds, which is often where solo-GP funds either bring in co-investors to protect their ownership or get diluted out of their best-performing bets. How Bajela handles that trade-off, and whether Evertrue's early momentum -- seven portfolio companies, majority US-based -- continues once the fund's capital is more fully deployed, will shape whether a Fund II follows.