Insiya Jafferjee

Insiya Jafferjee grew up in Sri Lanka and left to study at Stanford University, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Product Design with a specialisation in mechanical engineering and anthropology. After Stanford, she worked in consumer electronics product roles at Ford Motor Company, Bose, and Apple, where she spent five years as a Manufacturing Design Engineer and worked across Watch and iPod operations. These formative years gave her deep expertise in the demands of high-volume industrial manufacturing.

The founding idea for Shellworks emerged during Jafferjee's postgraduate studies in London, where she met co-founder Amir Afshar through the Innovation Design Engineering double Master's programme run jointly by Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art. She completed an MA at the Royal College of Art and an MSc from Imperial. The two began experimenting with waste streams, initially extracting biopolymers from shellfish shells before pivoting to a more scalable biological process.

In 2019, Jafferjee and Afshar co-founded Shellworks in London. As CEO, Jafferjee has led the development of Vivomer, a material produced by fermenting microorganisms on used cooking oil that performs like plastic but is certified to biodegrade completely in home composting conditions within a year. She has navigated multiple pivots — including a factory fire in 2021 — and has been recognised with the Veuve Clicquot Bold Future Award for her achievements at the company.

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