--- title: "Why Zuberi shut down" description: "Zuberi Technologies was an Accra fintech, led by co-founder and chief executive Julian Owusu, that let salaried employees draw earned wages before payday through an app supplied to their employer. It ran a private beta in early 2020, was ISO 27001 certified in February 2022, pitched at the Stitch Startup Showcase in March 2022 and was named to the 2022 Africa cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. No documented company activity was found after December 2022, and no shutdown was ever announced." canonical_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/zuberi" markdown_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/zuberi.md" type: "graveyard" language: "en" image: "/graveyard/zuberi/certificate.png" published_at: "2026-08-07T10:10:35.259Z" updated_at: "2026-08-07T15:55:33.808Z" --- # Why Zuberi shut down Zuberi Technologies was an Accra fintech, led by co-founder and chief executive Julian Owusu, that let salaried employees draw earned wages before payday through an app supplied to their employer. It ran a private beta in early 2020, was ISO 27001 certified in February 2022, pitched at the Stitch Startup Showcase in March 2022 and was named to the 2022 Africa cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. No documented company activity was found after December 2022, and no shutdown was ever announced. ## Breadcrumbs - [Graveyard](/graveyard) - [Zuberi](/graveyard/zuberi) ## Summary Here lies Zuberi. It let salaried Ghanaians draw the wages they had already earned, won ISO 27001 and a Google Black Founders Fund grant. Then the finance regulator decided it looked too much like a bank and told it to stop. Its own advance never cleared. Zuberi Technologies was an Accra fintech, led by co-founder and chief executive Julian Owusu, that let salaried employees draw earned wages before payday through an app supplied to their employer. It ran a private beta in early 2020, was ISO 27001 certified in February 2022, pitched at the Stitch Startup Showcase in March 2022 and was named to the 2022 Africa cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. No documented company activity was found after December 2022, and no shutdown was ever announced. ## Product history | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Fate | ShutDown | | Primary cause | Regulation | | Stage at shutdown | Grant-funded | | Lifespan in days | | ## Autopsy report ## What the product attempted An all-in-one mobile app plus employer dashboard for on-demand employee benefits. Workers could access a portion of their salary before payday for a transparent per-withdrawal fee, with the pitch that this displaced high-interest short-term borrowing; employers got an HR portal to administer it, and the company wrapped the product in financial-literacy and financial-wellness messaging. Its own research found that most Ghanaian companies had no financial wellness strategy, leaving staff to take costly loans to cover short-term needs. By early 2022 it was running a waitlist aimed at government workers, reachable by dialling 3310. ## What worked Zuberi Technologies announced ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification in February 2022, with CEO Julian Owusu and chief growth officer Nana Adomako fronting the announcement. In March 2022 it was one of ten African fintechs, and one of two from Ghana, selected to pitch at the Stitch Startup Showcase before US, UK and African investors. In September 2022 it was named among the 60 startups in the second Africa cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, each receiving $100,000 in non-dilutive cash plus up to $200,000 in Google Cloud credits and mentorship. It also built a small community presence, co-hosting the first 'Building Startups in Ghana' event with Survey54 in Osu in December 2021, which drew over 100 attendees and eight pitching founders. At launch in 2020 it said it had secured a partnership with a major telecommunications provider, which was not named. ## What happened Tech Labari's 12 February 2024 report of the Build Summit is the founder's own retrospective account that the company had to stop operating. Nothing supports it having resumed: no press coverage of Zuberi exists anywhere after the December 2022 Tech Labari podcast (Tech Labari, MyJoyOnline and Disrupt Africa site searches all stop there); its website tryzuberi.com resolves to a Google Cloud address (34.144.233.92) but presents a TLS certificate that is not valid for the domain, so no site is served; and the Internet Archive has captured tryzuberi.com exactly once in its entire history, on 6 December 2025. Zuberi also does not appear anywhere on Microtraction's current portfolio page, which lists 66 companies including two direct comparables, PaidHR and Gwala. ## Sources - [BUILD Holds Its First 'Build Summit' Event With Discussions On Experiences and Challenges of Building a Tech Business In Ghana, by Joseph-Albert Kuuire](https://techlabari.com/poynt-holds-build-summit-with-discussions-on-experiences-and-challenges-of-a-building-tech-business-in-ghana/): TechLabari - [Zuberi Is Planning To Launch A Different Approach To Employee Financial Benefits](https://techlabari.com/zuberi-is-planning-to-launch-a-different-take-on-employee-financial-benefits/): TechLabari - [Zuberi partners Survey 54 to host maiden edition of 'Building Startups in Ghana' event](https://www.myjoyonline.com/zuberi-partners-survey-54-to-host-maiden-edition-of-building-startups-in-ghana-event/): MyJoyOnline - [Zuberi Technologies awarded ISO Certification](https://www.myjoyonline.com/zuberi-technologies-awarded-iso-certification/): MyJoyOnline - [10 African fintechs pitch at Stitch Startup Showcase](https://disruptafrica.com/2022/03/03/10-african-fintechs-pitch-at-stitch-startup-showcase/): Disrupt Africa - [Built, KudiGo, and Zuberi Amongst List Of Startups Added To Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Africa 2022](https://techlabari.com/built-kudigo-and-zuberi-amongst-list-of-startups-added-to-google-for-startups-black-founders-fund-in-africa-2022/): TechLabari - [Episode 3: Julian Owusu – CEO and Co-founder of Zuberi](https://techlabari.com/whats-your-story-julian-owusu-ceo-and-co-founder-of-zuberi/): TechLabari - [Tech in Ghana 2025 Spotlight: Julian Owusu – BUILD 2025](https://techlabari.com/tech-in-ghana-2025-spotlight-julian-owusu-build-2025/): TechLabari - [Zuberi](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zuberi): Crunchbase - [Microtraction portfolio (66 companies; Zuberi absent)](https://microtraction.com/portfolio): Microtraction ## Related pages - [Zuberi alternatives](/zuberi/alternatives) - [Liners Graveyard](/graveyard) ## Access and citation - [Canonical HTML page](https://liners.com/graveyard/zuberi) - [Markdown route index](/sitemap.md) - [Agent access guide](/llms.txt)