Q&A with Jens Klein, CEO & Founder of Insempra

14.11.2022 · 3 min. read

, Linkedin, Twitter

What inspired you to found the company and what is your vision for Insempra?

Businesses have relied on chemical industrialisation processes and the use of petrochemicals in their products for too long. This has caused the depletion of our planet’s natural resources and is driving climate breakdown and the extinction of millions of species. 

I truly believe that the time to find new ways to change how products are made is now. Insempra is driving this change by developing intrinsically sustainable ingredients for a wide range of industries.

I founded Insempra to drive the regenerative revolution, the goal is to combine the best people and the most advanced regenerative tech with biology to grow matter at scale for new and better products.

What makes Insempra’s approach different to that of other synthetic biology companies?

Insempra takes a market-first, customer-focused approach to developing its science, creating ingredients that customers need. By listening to its customers, and leveraging the atomic precision of nature, Insempra is able to design and build ingredients which are not just more sustainable, but also have better properties than those manufactured through current chemical industrialisation processes.

By being a technology-agnostic platform, Insempra is building up a unique position to offer a broad range of products to its customers.

The promise of nature co-design is massive but so far scaling has been an issue for most companies, so that only few have managed to successfully scale up to an industrial level. How do you plan to overcome this challenge?


Co-founder Andreas Heyl and I, both have a proven track record in developing biology-powered technologies. As the former CEO of AMSilk, the first industrial supplier of vegan silk polymers, I have developed extensive expertise in the development and scale-up of biologically superior ingredients. Andreas Heyl has over 20 years of experience in the chemical and manufacturing industry, spanning the development and execution of R&D strategies for food ingredients and basic/fine chemicals. 

Additionally, our expert team is growing continuously and is taking scalability into account from the very beginning of the R&D process – all of these factors combined, give Insempra a unique competitive advantage and the tools to succeed in scaling the business. 

Insempra’s investment in Solena Materials will accelerate your fibers division, which other technologies/products are you currently developing?


Our Lipids and Functional Ingredients divisions are developing oils and ingredients for cosmetic and food applications that will replace agriculturally and petrochemically sourced lipids. 

These technologies help to eliminate the negative impact, like deforestation that is caused by the lipids most commonly used in production. We’re very excited about our new products and you’ll hear more about them soon. 

Posted by Nicole Laurence

Latest news

Insempra Advances to Stage 2 of the SPRIND Biomanufacturing Challenge with a €2m project budget for ‘BioTreasure’ 

We are proud to announce that Insempra has been elected for €1.5 million in funding from The Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, SPRIND, in their 2023 circular biomanufacturing challenge for its innovative biomanufacturing prototype, ‘BioTreasure’.

Insempra completes $20 million financing to advance the development of next-generation bio-based ingredients.

Series A investment round will accelerate Insempra’s market-first approach to developing superior, intrinsically sustainable ingredients for the beauty & food industries.

Insempra awarded Eurostars grant to develop fermentative biomelanin with a consortium of innovative European partners. 

Insempra has been awarded a substantial Eurostars grant as a consortium comprising one academic and three industrial partners across three European countries. The consortium was highly recognized and ranked second out of all accepted 216 total, grant-winning European consortiums and was awarded a total funding amount of €2,1M. 

Meet Ed van der Ent, Head of Process Design and Manufacturing

Meet Ed van der Ent, Head of Process Design and Manufacturing

Insempra wins €1.5M disruptive innovation grant with circular biomanufacturing concept ‘BioTreasure’.

We are proud to announce that Insempra has been elected for €1.5 million in funding from The Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, SPRIND, in their 2023 circular biomanufacturing challenge for its innovative biomanufacturing prototype, ‘BioTreasure’.

Shaping the future of sustainable flavors and fragrances

We sat down with Ron Honing, CEO of Axxence, to talk about all things flavors and fragrances, the role of biotechnology and how this dynamic market is evolving.  
Insempra and Fibers365 announce successful testing of second-generation feedstock to manufacture fermentation-based products

Insempra and Fibers365 announce successful testing of second-generation feedstock to manufacture fermentation-based products

Insempra and Fibers365 announce successful testing of second-generation feedstock to manufacture fermentation-based products.

Meet Ruchita Chawla, Head of Project Management

Meet Ruchita Chawla, Head of Project Management

Insempra announces first fermentation-based functional ingredient for consumer goods

Insempra has launched its first functional ingredient, a biotechnologically produced, 100% natural alpha-Ionone flavour and fragrance ingredient for food and beauty market applications.

Meet Niharika Singh, Senior Engineering Associate

Meet Niharika Singh, Senior Engineering Associate

Nature grows
— and so does our community.

Read more