Funding profile · Genetic medicine delivery

Engage Bio

Founded 2021, never filed a Form D, one federal grant on the public record, sold to Eli Lilly in May 2026 for up to $202 million in cash. Almost the whole capital picture is private.

$202MMaximum cash, undisclosed upfront plus development milestones
$865,162Total federal SBIR dollars, all in one NIH NCATS Phase II award
$354,248Obligated in FY2025, the first budget period of that award
0Form D notices on file with the SEC

Data as of September 24, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
Winter 2022 Y Combinator batch Not disclosed Y Combinator YC listing
Not disclosed Seed, called “modest seed funding” Not disclosed SciFounders, Pioneer Fund, Cal Innovation Fund, Y Combinator, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Company release
Not disclosed Non-dilutive grant Not disclosed Gates Foundation Company release
Aug 1, 2025 SBIR Phase II R44TR005945-01 $865,162 total; $354,248 in FY2025 NIH NCATS NIH, SBA
May 20, 2026 Acquisition Up to $202,000,000 cash Eli Lilly and Company Announced deal
Apr 2022, as listed Aggregator entry $4.0M, and $500,000 on the same page An investor list no other source reports Differs from the record

What the filings show

SEC EDGAR · no Form D · searched Sep 24, 2026

Registrants
None for Engage Bio or Engage Biologics
Form D
0 notices. No CIK assigned
Vehicles
No SPV named for the company found
Reading
Issuers selling under Section 4(a)(2) file nothing, so silence is not evidence

Engage Biologics Inc · NIH NCATS SBIR Phase II · Aug 1, 2025

Award
1R44TR005945-01, activity code R44, new award
Total
$865,162 per the SBA portfolio record
FY2025
$354,248 obligated, about 41 percent of it
PI
Benjamin Richard Hawley, chief technology officer
Period
Aug 1, 2025 to May 21, 2026
Registrant
930 Brittan Ave, San Carlos, CA 94070. UEI V7P6GM4QALH9. Five employees
Filing
NIH RePORTER 11256334, SBIR.gov 2474503

Reading the filings

  1. There is no private funding record to read.Zero Form D notices, no CIK, no SPV. Every equity figure the company has given is qualitative: a batch, five named seed investors, and the phrase “modest seed funding”. An aggregator publishes $4.0M and $500,000 on one page, with an investor list matching nothing else, so discard both rather than average them.
  2. The only audited dollars are federal.$865,162 in one award, of which $354,248 was obligated in FY2025, leaving about $510,914. For a five-person company that is the only spend figure of any kind on the public record.
  3. The award period and the exit are one day apart.The project end date is May 21, 2026; the deal was announced May 20, 2026. Whether the grant ran out, closed early or transferred to the buyer has not been reported.
  4. The headline is a ceiling, not a price.$202 million is upfront plus milestones, split undisclosed. The same buyer paid about $1.0 billion upfront for Verve in 2025 and $3.25 billion upfront for Kelonia in April 2026, both with clinical assets. Engage had no IND and no named candidate.
  5. The validators were non-dilutive.The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation sits among the seed investors and the Gates Foundation funded a grant; neither amount is disclosed.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Regulatory No IND, no registered trial, no FDA record at exit. Public record
Pipeline No named candidate. Grant aims cover hepatocellular carcinoma and hemophilia. Public record
Publications Zero Europe PMC hits for Tethosome. Not found
Patents No published US application or grant naming the company found. Not found
Partnerships None disclosed before the acquisition. Company-stated
Status Now a Lilly subsidiary. engagebio.com serves Lilly’s subsidiaries page. Public record

What to watch

  • Disclosure of the upfront share of the $202 million, more likely in a Lilly quarterly filing than a release.
  • Closeout or transfer of award R44TR005945 in the federal record.
  • Patent publications on nuclear tethering of non-viral DNA.
  • An IND, the event that would start milestone payments running.

The Engage Bio story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • Sensible Biotechnologies: Also in Therapeutics. A platform that grows therapeutic mRNA inside engineered cells instead of making it in a tube
  • Excepgen: Also in Therapeutics. A San Francisco biotech that started by engineering human cells to make hard to express proteins for drug discovery, and has since turned to a different problem
  • Kernal Biologics: Also in Therapeutics. A Boston company designing messenger RNA that switches on only inside the cells it is aimed at, now building an in vivo CAR T therapy on that idea
  • Rejuvenation Technologies: Also in Therapeutics. A Stanford spinout that switches telomerase on for a day or two with modified mRNA, then lets it fade

Sources

  1. Public recordEDGAR company search, no matching companiesSEC · Sep 24, 2026
  2. Public recordNIH RePORTER project 11256334NIH NCATS · FY2025
  3. Public recordSBIR.gov company portfolio 2474503SBA · Sep 24, 2026
  4. Public recordEurope PMC search for Tethosome, zero hitsEMBL-EBI · Sep 24, 2026
  5. CompanyEngage Bio acquired by Lilly to accelerate development of non-viral genetic medicinesBusiness Wire · May 20, 2026
  6. IndependentLilly and Engage Bio tie the knot with $202M acquisitionBioSpace, Gabrielle Masson · May 20, 2026
  7. IndependentLilly snaps up Engage to advance non-viral genetic medicinesBioPharma Dive, Delilah Alvarado · May 20, 2026
  8. IndependentEli Lilly grows again in genetic medicinesMedCity News, Frank Vinluan · May 20, 2026
  9. IndependentThe body becomes the factory, with Lilly deal valuesThe No-VC Playbook, Anthony Ao · May 24, 2026
  10. InterviewEngage Bio acquired by Lilly, on a conversation with Will OlsenMBC BioLabs · 2026
  11. CompanyEngage Bio company profile, batch and team sizeY Combinator · archived May 21, 2026
  12. AggregatorEngage Bio funding, team and investorsStartup Intros · Jul 13, 2026

Compiled from SEC, NIH, SBA and other public records and published reports as of September 24, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; none exists for this company, and issuers selling under Section 4(a)(2) file none. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Engage Bio or in Eli Lilly and Company. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.