ZenBusiness is an American software-as-a-service (Saas) company that provides business formation and fintech services.[1] It was founded in 2015 by Ross Buhrdorf and Shanaz Hemmati and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.[2][3] It operates as a public-benefit corporation.[4]
ZenBusiness was founded in 2015 by Ross Buhrdorf and Shanaz Hemmati.[2] Before founding ZenBusiness, Buhrdorf served as the CTO of the vacation rental company HomeAway,[5] which was eventually acquired by Expedia.[citation needed] Hemmati also served as an executive at HomeAway before co-founding ZenBusiness with Buhrdorf.[6]Mark Cuban serves as an advisor, shareholder, and spokesperson for ZenBusiness.[7][8]
Initially, the company operated according to a product-led growth (PLG) strategy, offering some services for free. In 2018, ZenBusiness began offering the same services and SaaS simultaneously. In 2020, ZenBusiness transitioned to an annual package-based model.[citation needed]
In the same year, ZenBusiness acquired the digital banking platform Joust.[9][10] The following year, ZenBusiness launched its own money management app, ZenBusiness Money.[11] In 2022, ZenBusiness acquired the growth-engine platform Ureeka.[12]
ZenBusiness launched Velo, an AI agent and chatbot for automating business tasks, such as filing regulations, doing research, creating websites, and providing personalized advice, in 2025.[7]
In March 2026, the ransomware group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for stealing several terabytes of data from ZenBusiness via vishing. The group issued a warning, demanding a ransom payment by March 25 or the stolen data would be leaked.[13]