Yvonne Bajela has launched Evertrue, a venture fund that closed an oversubscribed $17 million Fund I, according to TechCrunch reporter Dominic-Madori Davis. Bajela announced the close on Tuesday.
Bajela previously worked as a venture capitalist at LocalGlobe and Impact X Capital Partners. She said she wants the fund to focus on early-stage investing across the U.K. and Europe, with an average check size of around £350,000. She plans to back at least 20 companies over the next three years. The firm has already backed seven companies.
Bajela said the AI boom helped convince her that the time was right to launch her own fund. "The ability to build has been democratized," she said. "But the ability to build something enduring remains rare."
Evertrue has five institutional backers, including the British Business Bank and Basecamp, the fund-of-funds of Phoenix Court. Bajela said the fund had hoped to raise around $13 million but drew significant investor interest. She said she chose to turn down additional investors rather than increase the fund size. Around 80% of its limited partners are based in the U.K.
Bajela said the fund will invest mainly in AI and fintech. She said she looks for founders with "a unique insight into a problem, an unusual ability to execute and the ambition to build something much bigger than their initial product."