Women Backing Women Fund Deploys First Capital from £130M Vehicle

Women Backing Women Fund Deploys First Capital, Signalling a New Model for Female Founder Investment

The Women Backing Women Fund of Funds, managed by Bootstrap 4F, has made its first three investments, deploying capital from a vehicle designed to reshape how venture funding reaches female founders in the UK. The fund has backed Evertrue Capital, a 100 per cent female-owned fund founded by Yvonne Bajela, alongside Seedcamp VII and Seedcamp Nation II.

The investments mark the operational launch of what is one of the most ambitious structural interventions in UK venture capital. Rather than backing individual startups directly, the Women Backing Women Fund operates as a fund of funds, investing into venture capital funds that are themselves more likely to back female founders. It is a deliberately upstream approach: change who manages the capital, and the downstream effects on founder diversity should follow.

How the fund came together

Bootstrap 4F was selected by the Invest in Women Taskforce to manage the fund, which has a target size of £130 million. The first close came in March 2026 at £13 million, anchored by four significant institutional backers: Barclays, the British Business Bank, M&G, and Nationwide. A target final close of £25 million is being pursued, with over 90 funds having expressed interest in receiving investment from the vehicle.

The anchor investor list is notable. These are not niche impact funds or specialist gender-lens vehicles. Barclays, M&G, and Nationwide are mainstream financial institutions, and their involvement signals that the investment case for backing diverse fund managers is gaining traction beyond the specialist impact community. The British Business Bank’s participation adds institutional credibility and aligns with its stated objective of improving access to funding for underrepresented founders.

Why Evertrue Capital matters

Of the three initial investments, the backing of Evertrue Capital is perhaps the most symbolically significant. Founded by Yvonne Bajela, a prominent figure in UK venture capital and a vocal advocate for diversity in the industry, Evertrue is 100 per cent female-owned. Bajela has built a track record investing in early-stage companies across technology and consumer sectors, and her fund represents exactly the kind of emerging manager that the Women Backing Women model is designed to support.

The challenge for female fund managers in the UK has never been a shortage of talent or deal flow. It has been access to LP capital. Institutional investors have historically allocated to established managers with long track records, creating a circular barrier for newer funds, particularly those led by women and people from minority backgrounds. A fund of funds that explicitly targets these managers disrupts that cycle by providing the anchor capital that emerging managers need to reach first close and begin investing.

The fund-of-funds model explained

For those unfamiliar with the structure, a fund of funds does not invest directly in companies. Instead, it invests in other investment funds, spreading capital across multiple managers and strategies. This creates leverage: a relatively modest fund-of-funds vehicle can influence the investment behaviour of a much larger pool of capital by helping the funds it backs to reach viable scale.

The model also reduces risk for LPs. Rather than betting on a single fund manager, investors in the Women Backing Women Fund gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of venture funds, each with its own strategy, sector focus, and stage preference. For institutional investors exploring gender-lens investing for the first time, this diversification makes the proposition more accessible.

What this means for female founders

The practical impact for women starting and scaling businesses will take time to materialise fully. Venture capital is a long-cycle asset class, and the companies backed by the funds in which Women Backing Women invests are likely still at pre-seed or seed stage. But the direction of travel is clear: more capital flowing to fund managers who actively seek out female founders means a larger, more diverse pipeline of funded companies over the next five to ten years.

This matters because the statistics remain stark. Female-founded companies in the UK received just 2 per cent of all venture capital in recent years, a figure that has barely moved despite growing awareness of the gap. Initiatives that operate at the fund manager level, rather than the individual company level, have the potential to create systemic rather than incremental change.

The involvement of Seedcamp, one of the UK’s most established early-stage investors, is also worth noting. Seedcamp has backed hundreds of startups across Europe and has a strong reputation for founder quality. Its inclusion suggests that the Women Backing Women Fund is integrating its mission into the mainstream venture ecosystem, not limiting itself to specialist diversity-focused managers.

The road ahead

With over 90 funds having shown interest, the Women Backing Women Fund is not short of demand. The challenge now is reaching final close and deploying capital at a pace that matches the opportunity. The UK’s women’s enterprise sector is growing, and the pipeline of investable female-led startups is deeper than it has ever been. What has been missing is the institutional plumbing to connect that pipeline with capital at scale. Bootstrap 4F’s model is an attempt to build it. The first deployments mark a tangible step from ambition to action, and for women seeking venture backing, that is a meaningful signal.

Prowess tracks funding developments and investment opportunities relevant to women in business. Read more about funding your startup without losing control, explore the investing gender gap, or visit women’s enterprise in 2025 for the wider context.