Fund Manager Incubator Graduates Part of British Business Bank’s £90 Million Investment
Three of our fund managers – Evertrue Capital, Future Impact Ventures, and Blue Lake VC – cleared the investment committee at the first attempt.
Three graduates of Pathway Fund’s Fund Manager Incubator have each secured a cornerstone commitment from the British Business Bank’s Investor Pathways Capital initiative, through which the BBB are intending to commit up to £90 million to ten fund managers.
The credit belongs to the managers. They have worked incredibly hard to get here: building investment theses; assembling teams; fundraising; and ultimately persuading one of the UK’s most rigorous institutional processes to back them.
We are very proud to have played a part, and thrilled to see them reach this milestone.
Evertrue Capital is led by Yvonne Bajela. It is a founder-first venture fund backing exceptional founders at the earliest stages, before they become obvious.
Future Impact Ventures is led by Gosbert Chagula MBE, Mandy Nyarko MBE, and Jordan Fletcher, of Startup Discovery. They are backing mission driven founders building inclusive climate solutions that accelerate an equitable net-zero transition.
Blue Lake VC is led by David Gilgur and Lyubov Guk. Blue Lake is the first institutional cheque into exceptional immigrant founders in the UK.
Thousands to Millions – The Multiplier Effect
Our contribution was working capital – £159,000 across the three managers, around £53,000 each, paid in two tranches. It’s resulted in a multiplier effect. The fund managers now have access to a pot of up to £90 million.
Their fund sizes range from £10 million to £20 million.
Our injection covered the costs of fund formation that the traditional 2–and–20 model cannot absorb before a first close: legal and governance structures; regulatory applications; investor documentation; and early operational set–up.
Alongside the grant, we ran a six–month programme – 44 hours’ of expert–led sessions with 18 practitioners, LP office hours with ten institutional investors, and weekly one–to–one working sessions with the Pathway team.
The British Business Bank’s Investor Pathways Capital Fund is providing up to £90 million to up to ten fund managers.
Pathway’s working capital did not influence the BBB’s decision. It ensured the managers were ready to make their case when the moment came.
Pathway Fund Is Working
This shows that Pathway Fund is working – and that we are delivering upon our mandate. Our programmes work. Our interventions work.
Three of six FMI graduates have now cleared an institutional investment committee.
Those three funds will go on to back up to 90 companies in communities that mainstream venture capital has historically underserved.
Planning for the next phase of the Fund Manager Incubator – which will, for the first time, include an LP investment ticket alongside the working capital grant – is already under way.
The British Business Bank Is Catalysing
It is excellent to see the BBB deliver on this important milestone.
The Investor Pathways Capital is designed to widen access to venture capital by backing talented first-time fund managers from a range of backgrounds, particularly those who have faced barriers to raising institutional capital.
The initiative will support a more diverse and dynamic investment ecosystem across the UK, while unlocking new sources of early-stage finance for high-growth businesses.
Lord Dr Michael Hastings CBE, Chair, Pathway Fund, said:
“Pathway Fund exists to open doors that have for too long been closed to Black and Ethnically Minoritised fund managers. What we have built is not simply a vehicle for deploying capital. It is a deliberate act of institutional correction.
Today’s announcement is evidence that when you build that infrastructure well, institutional capital follows. This is exactly what Pathway Fund was conceived to deliver: to unlock patient capital for underserved, high-potential, BEM-led communities. And today’s commitment shows that our interventions are working in a transformative way.
I am proud of what the team has built, and proud of the three fund managers who have shown, through rigorous process and genuine vision, that they are ready to deploy that capital with excellence. This moment will be felt by entrepreneurs who will now receive the investment they so greatly deserve. But, crucially, it will also be felt by the next generation of fund managers who can see, perhaps for the first time, that a path exists for them too.”
Asher Craig, Chief Executive Officer, Pathway Fund, said:
"This is fantastic news, and the credit belongs entirely to the fund managers – to their vision, their persistence and the quality of what they've built. What Pathway Fund provided was working capital, structured support and a programme designed to meet fund managers where they are.
The fact that three of our incubator graduates have now secured institutional investment is not just a milestone for these organisations. It is proof of concept for a model that many doubted. There are still those who question whether the pipeline of diverse fund managers is deep enough, or whether the demand is real. Today answers that question.
We are delighted to see Evertrue Capital, Future Impact Ventures and Blue Lake VC reach this moment, and we look forward to watching their funds put this investment to work in communities that have waited too long for patient, mission-aligned capital to arrive. That is what this programme was designed to achieve – and we are only just getting started."
Gosbert Chagula MBE and Jordan Fletcher, Founders, Future Impact Ventures, said:
“Pathway Fund’s support came at exactly the right moment for us. Getting first-time fund off the ground requires time, structure, access, and the ability to do the early work before institutional capital arrives.
The working capital and wider programme support gave us the space to build Future Impact Ventures on a solid foundation. In that sense, the intervention was genuinely catalytic.
We’re delighted to have secured this commitment from the British Business Bank and excited to put that capital to work behind founders building a fairer transition to net zero.”
Lyubov Guk and David Gilgur, Founders, Blue Lake VC, said:
"We started Blue Lake VC because we could see how many exceptional international founders in the UK were being overlooked at the earliest stage, not because the ambition or quality wasn't there, but because the usual networks and pattern-matching weren't built for them.
It's also why we created and run Oasis, a community and home for brilliant international founders in the UK building global solutions. This commitment from the British Business Bank is a huge milestone for us and for the founders we want to back. Pathway Fund's support came at a formative moment, giving us the space, structure and confidence to build the fund properly.
We're excited to get on with the real work now: backing talented founders who are building important businesses and who deserve to be seen earlier.”
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said:
We have the right economic plan – backing the next generation of investors to spur growth and ensure businesses start, scale-up and expand across every part of the country.
Alongside investments from the British Business Bank, our significant changes to the Enterprise Management Incentive scheme and our venture capital tax schemes at the last Budget will help entrepreneurs attract and retain the best talent while supporting around £100m of extra investment a year.
Mark Sims, Managing Director and Head of Development Equity Funds, British Business Bank, said:
“The first Microfunds cohort under Investor Pathways Capital represents an important milestone, delivering on our commitment to build the next generation of UK venture capital investors.
By backing first-time fund managers and improving access to finance at the earliest stages, we are helping to create a more diverse and resilient pipeline of high-growth UK companies”.
Meghan Stevenson-Krausz, former CEO of Diversity VC, said:
“Who gets to allocate capital shapes which ideas are funded, which companies are built and ultimately who benefits from economic growth.
Investor Pathways Capital represents an important step towards broadening access to venture investing by helping talented emerging managers establish institutional track records.
By de-risking participation for private investors and opening doors to a wider range of investment talent, the programme has the potential to strengthen the UK's venture ecosystem and ensure that more of the country's entrepreneurial talent can contribute to future growth.”
