Biograil Raises €20 Million to Push Oral Biologic Delivery Into Clinics

Copenhagen-based biotech Biograil has raised €20 million to move its oral drug delivery platform, BIONDD®, into position for Phase 1 clinical trials. Verve Ventures and Megatrend Invest joined the round, alongside returning investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), which participated through its HTGF Opportunity growth fund.

The money has one job: bridge the company from preclinical work to first-in-human testing. Biograil plans to spend it completing non-clinical Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) studies and building a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production process — the two regulatory gates that stand between a delivery platform and clinical testing. On top of this equity round, Biograil is also drawing on non-dilutive funding from partnerships, which stretches the runway without further eroding founder and early-investor stakes.

What does BIONDD® actually do?

The platform tackles one of pharma's oldest frustrations: many medicines, especially biologics, only work if you inject them. Swallow a protein-based drug and stomach acid and digestion destroy it before it reaches the bloodstream.

Biograil's answer is a device packed inside a standard-sized capsule. Once swallowed, it delivers the active substance directly into the stomach wall, where it can be absorbed into the body. The company is developing the technology in two directions at once: reformulating existing injectable medicines into oral form, and enabling new pharmaceutical compounds that have been difficult or impossible to administer orally.

That second track matters for practitioners watching the deal. Oral delivery doesn't just swap a needle for a pill — it can change which products get developed at all.

What the CEO is promising

Biograil CEO Karsten Lindhardt frames the round as validation from backers who already know the company best. "Excellent to see such strong support from existing internal investors and involve the HTGF Opportunity growth fund in the round," Lindhardt said. "This, in combination with non-diluting funding from partnerships, will enable Biograil to continue to move our BIONDD® technology toward Phase 1 clinical studies."

He also pointed past convenience toward new market creation: "The BIONDD® technology can allow oral delivery of large market compounds for better convenience and medical benefit and in addition create development opportunities for new innovative combination products which may never have been feasible or attractive as conventional injectable or oral products."

Who's behind the money

HTGF's involvement runs deepest. The German seed investor first backed Biograil in 2019 as part of its seed investment syndicate and has now returned through its growth-stage vehicle, HTGF Opportunity — a signal that the firm sees the company graduating from research bet to clinical candidate.

"We first invested in Biograil in 2019 because we saw the potential of its approach to oral drug delivery," said Anke Cassing, Principal at HTGF. "Our participation through the HTGF Opportunity reflects our continued conviction in that potential as the company prepares for clinical development."

The wider syndicate is unusually heavyweight for a company still ahead of its first human trial. Biograil's existing investors include Eli Lilly and Company, Sanner Ventures, Evonik Venture Capital, Anobis GmbH and Roquette Ventures — a mix of big pharma, specialty materials and ingredient players with obvious strategic interest in oral biologics.

What comes next

The €20 million is explicitly a stepping stone, not a destination. Biograil is targeting a larger financing round in 2027 to fund development beyond Phase 1, meaning the company has roughly two years to convert this capital into GLP study results, a GMP-qualified process and, ultimately, clinical data. For anyone tracking oral delivery of injectables, that 2027 round — and the data package behind it — is the date to watch.