Evertrue Capital, the new firm of former Phoenix Court partner Yvonne Bajela, has closed its first fund at $17m (about €15m), with the British Business Bank and Phoenix Court's Basecamp programme among its limited partners. The vehicle will write pre-seed cheques of £250,000 to £500,000 into frontier technology founders, mainly in the UK and Europe.
Bajela was previously a partner at Phoenix Court, the group behind LocalGlobe and Latitude, where she invested in companies including the mobility fintech Moove. Before that she was a founding member and principal at Impact X Capital, where she led its seed investment in the insurer Marshmallow, and an investment manager at Mitsui & Co, where her deals included Wise. She began her career at Goldman Sachs.
Evertrue now joins the list of solo-GP vehicles to have reached a final close in a difficult market for emerging managers. The firm cites data showing that 67% of new venture funds launched in 2024 targeted less than $10m.
The LP base
The fund's backers are a mix of institutional and impact capital. Phoenix Court has committed through Basecamp, its fund-of-funds for emerging managers, so Bajela's former employer becomes an investor in her new firm. Alongside it sit the British Business Bank, Better Society Capital, Bootstrap 4F, which is linked to the Invest in Women Taskforce, and Allocator One.
The British Business Bank commitment follows Evertrue's selection in June among the first managers chosen for the state-owned bank's microfund programme, which was set up to back smaller, first-time funds at the earliest stage of the market.
The size of each LP's commitment was not disclosed.
Concentrated portfolio
The fund will not take a high-volume approach. Evertrue says it will lead a small number of investments each year, with initial cheques of £250,000 to £500,000.
It has already backed seven companies. Those named include Revion, a Y Combinator-backed agentic AI company for the automotive sector; Poindexter Labs, an AI capability and efficiency lab; Zuba, a fintech building infrastructure for global businesses; and Zaro, which is building a shared knowledge layer for enterprises. Half of the portfolio already operates in the US.
Revion co-founder Zaki Gabe-Wilkinson said Evertrue wrote the company's first cheque and then helped it hire and meet investors in the UK and US ahead of its seed round.
What's next
Bajela has said she wants to invest before founders have proof of traction, backing people whose insight often comes from lived experience. In practice, Evertrue's model depends on owning meaningful early stakes in a small number of companies and holding them through later rounds led by larger funds.
The close also adds to a busy autumn for European early-stage fund announcements. Berlin solo GP Robin Capital closed a €15m second fund on the same day. For UK pre-seed founders, it brings another lead investor willing to write a sizeable first cheque at a time when many generalist funds have moved later.
Original source: Sifted — https://sifted.eu/articles/evertrue-capital-closes-17m-debut-fund/ ; EU-Startups — https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/11/4-evertrue-capital-raises-e15-million-debut-fund-backed-by-british-business-bank-and-phoenix-court/
