The BioInnovation Institute (BII), an initiative of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, has announced a €1.3 million investment in follow-on funding for five portfolio startups. This additional funding brings the total support for each company up to €1.8 million.

Funding Objectives

The funds are intended to support product development, operational scaling, and progress toward market deployment across healthtech, agritech, climatetech, and deeptech. The announcement follows a recent commitment by the Novo Nordisk Foundation to invest up to €736 million in BII, enabling the Copenhagen-based institute to expand into new strategic areas and support a larger number of entrepreneurs and startups across Europe.

The Beneficiary Startups

The five startups that received funding are:

  • Synuca Therapeutics: Developing a first-in-class disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson’s disease and related brain disorders.
  • Gefjon Pharma: Building an outer membrane vesicle (OMV) platform to produce cost-effective vaccines and therapeutics, initially targeting E. coli infections in poultry to reduce antimicrobial use.
  • MicroMiner: Advancing recycling technology to improve the sustainability of EV batteries as it transitions from research to deployable solutions.
  • DARERL: Developing a SaaS platform that provides high-fidelity digital human anatomy models to support the design and validation of wearable and medical devices.
  • Diasense: Industrialising a quantum diamond microscope to deliver real-time diagnostics and process insights for next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.

Statement

Trine Bartholdy, Chief Business Officer at BII, stated that all five companies clearly reflect BII’s mission to enable novel solutions that benefit human health, planetary health, and societal resilience.