Amir Afshar

Amir Afshar is an Iranian-born designer and entrepreneur who co-founded Shellworks, the London-based biomaterials company behind Vivomer — a biodegradable material that replaces petroleum plastic in personal care and consumer goods packaging. Afshar grew up with a passion for design and natural materials, and pursued that interest through a formal design career that took him across Europe and the UK before leading him to found one of Britain's most commercially serious sustainable materials businesses.

Afshar studied at the Royal College of Art, completing a Master of Arts in Innovation Design Engineering through the joint RCA and Imperial College London programme. His pre-Shellworks career brought together design consultancy and research: he contributed to the OSTRICH PILLOW project at STUDIO BANANA, worked as a Design Consultant at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design helping to envision how urban environments might evolve around autonomous vehicles, and completed an independent design residency at Atelier LUMA in Arles. He also held a Visiting Researcher position at Imperial College London from 2020.

In 2019, Afshar and co-founder Insiya Jafferjee launched Shellworks after meeting during their Masters programme. Afshar serves as Chief Product Officer, leading the material formulation and product development that has produced Vivomer — a biopolymer grown by fermenting microorganisms on used cooking oil. His near-decade of design experience focused on natural materials has shaped Shellworks' conviction that sustainable packaging must be beautiful and functional, not merely virtuous, if it is to achieve real scale.

Shellworks raised $15 million (£11 million) in a Series A in March 2026, led by Alter Equity, with participation from Nat Friedman (NFDG), JamJar Investments, Founder Collective, LocalGlobe, and Third Sphere. The company has achieved cost parity with glass and aluminium at five million units of production, with Vivomer packaging already on major retail shelves through partnerships with Wild, Sonsie Skin, and Phil's.