Shellworks

Shellworks product samples / Source: Shellworks

BeautyEuropeFood & BeveragePackagingVivomer

WHAT WE SAY:

Shellworks is "on a mission to make plastic waste a thing of the past" and it is not hanging about.

Having started with seafood waste-based materials in 2019, it quickly pivoted to microbial materials and gained a handful of high-profile customers and some major investment. Its petroleum-free, compostable packaging is a hit with the plastic-reliant beauty industry but the company has other sectors in its sights too. Having progressed from prototype to commercial product so quickly, Shellworks is undoubtedly one to watch.

Shellworks material samples / Source: Shellworks

ABOUT SHELLWORKS

Shellworks emerged in 2019 as a joint project between Insiya Jafferjee, Edward Jones and Amir Afshar on the Innovation Design Engineering course – a master’s degree, which is run jointly by the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London.
The group began by creating products made from chitin derived from crustacean shell waste, which led to its name. It officially launched as a startup in 2020, with an aim to "break the reliance on the petroleum industry" by creating a new standard of packaging.
It initially used chitin to create prototype products, including cups, blister packs, carrier bags and plant pots, simultaneously developing manufacturing machines to process the material. Named shelly, sheety, vaccy, dippy and drippy, their functions were self-explanatory, designed to manipulate the materials in different ways.
Since 2020, the company has expanded both its solutions and its source materials. While Shellmer, a thin film, which can be dissolved in hot water is extracted from seafood waste, its most recent release, Vivomer, is made with microbes found in marine and soil environments.
Launched in September 2021, Vivomer is derived from the fat-like energy system microbes build up as they feed on carbon sources. Once extracted, it behaves like plastic: it is strong, rigid and durable. Unlike plastic, however, Vivomer is compostable.
Co-founder Insiya Jafferjee says the material can be treated like food waste and composted without any specialised infrastructure.
Haeckels, one of the first brands to use Vivomer commercially, states that it enlisted Provenance to test Vivomer in all conditions, ensuring all compostability claims are verified.
To keep all of its products plastic and petroleum-free, Shellworks has also developed natural seals and dyes, which it will aim to customise upon request.
In 2019, Shellworks won the Venture Catalyst Challenge, run by Imperial, taking a GBP 30,000 (USD 35,000) prize.
In 2022, the company raised GBP 5 million (USD 6.2 million) in a seed round led by LocalGlobe. Other investors included Founder Collective, True Global and Box Group.
Alongside Haeckels, Shellworks’ clients include Bybi, Liha and Sana Jardin. The company expects to expand into other areas, including cleaning products.