The Danish biotech, backed by Eli Lilly among others, wants to turn injectable biologics into capsules. The money buys safety studies and manufacturing, not clinical proof; a larger round is already pencilled in for 2027.

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Biograil, a Copenhagen-based biotech developing a capsule that releases a tiny drug-delivery device inside the stomach, has closed a €20 million financing round, the company said on 4 November. The winners, for now, are its existing investors, who have chosen to double down before any human data exist. Verve Ventures and Megatrend Invest are backing the round, and German state-backed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), which led Biograil's seed round in 2019, is participating through its HTGF Opportunity growth fund. What comes next is spelled out plainly: the money is meant to get the company ready for a Phase 1 trial and to a "larger financing in 2027".

The company did not break down how much each investor contributed, disclose a valuation, or say whether the €20 million includes the €8.5 million first close it announced in July 2025, also led by Verve Ventures. Danish health outlet MedWatch put the round at about DKK 150 million.

A capsule that grabs the stomach wall

Biograil's BIONDD device sits inside a standard size 00 or size 0 capsule. According to the company, the capsule dissolves in the stomach and releases a device with a spring-loaded grabbing mechanism that attaches to the stomach wall and delivers the drug into the tissue, from where it is distributed through the body. The device, made by injection moulding, then passes through the gut. Biograil describes the device as "bio-compostable"; those safety and performance claims have not yet been tested in a clinical trial.

The money will go to non-clinical GLP (good laboratory practice) studies and to setting up a GMP (good manufacturing practice) production process. These are the regulatory groundwork needed before a first-in-human study, which means this round finances preparation, not proof. Chief executive Karsten Lindhardt said the funds, "in combination with non-diluting funding from partnerships, will enable Biograil to continue to move our BIONDD® technology toward Phase 1 clinical studies." Biograil signed a collaboration agreement with Australian biopharma group CSL in 2024 to develop certain CSL compounds using the technology. It has not disclosed the financial terms.

Anke Cassing, principal at HTGF, said: "Our participation through the HTGF Opportunity reflects our continued conviction in that potential as the company prepares for clinical development."

Why it matters

The prize is large. Many of the world's best-selling medicines, from insulin to antibodies and GLP-1 drugs, are biologics that are broken down in the gut and so have to be injected. Biograil says its device could carry "multi-billion-dollar injectable pharmaceuticals" as well as new compounds that cannot otherwise be taken by mouth. Any pharma company that can turn a weekly injection into a pill gains a strong advantage in patient preference and in extending the life of its products. That helps explain why Eli Lilly sits on Biograil's shareholder register alongside Sanner Ventures, Evonik Venture Capital, Anobis and Roquette Ventures.

The field is crowded. Copenhagen's own Novo Nordisk already sells an oral version of semaglutide that relies on an absorption enhancer rather than a device, and it previously worked with MIT researchers on a self-orienting swallowable injector. In the US, Nasdaq-listed Rani Therapeutics is developing a robotic pill that also injects drugs into the gut wall. Device-based oral delivery has proved slow and expensive to bring to market. Biograil's claim that its team includes R&D executives "behind the world's first injection-moulded oral tablet approved by the FDA" points to manufacturing know-how, but its real test will be human data.

For European deep tech, the round shows a familiar pattern: insiders and public-backed funds such as HTGF, whose growth vehicle is funded by Germany's ERP Special Fund and KfW, are keeping a capital-intensive medtech company going until clinical data can attract larger investors. Whether those investors arrive in 2027 depends on what the GLP studies show.

Sources: Biograil press release, 4 November 2026 (biograil.com/news); Biograil press releases on the CSL collaboration (17 July 2024) and the €8.5 million first close (1 July 2025); EU-Startups, 4 November 2026; MedWatch, 4 November 2026. No embargo applied.