Uzbekistan fintech company Uzum has reached a valuation of $2.3 billion. This marks an increase of approximately 53% from just seven months ago, reflecting growing investor confidence in the country’s emerging digital economy.
The valuation follows a $131.5 million investment round led by sovereign wealth funds from Oman. Existing investors, including Tencent, VR Capital, and FinSight Ventures, also participated. This round consists of $81.5 million in equity and $50 million in convertible financing linked to Uzum’s next funding round. The startup is targeting a potential pre-IPO raise of $250 million to $300 million in the second half of 2026 or early 2027.
Uzum previously raised $65.5 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in August 2025. It first became Uzbekistan’s inaugural unicorn, a startup valued over one billion dollars, in March 2024.
This new investment underscores Uzbekistan’s rise as one of the fastest-growing digital economies in Central Asia. The nation, the region’s most populous, is driven by a young demographic, rapid smartphone adoption, and relatively low penetration of online retail and banking services.
Founded in 2022, Uzum has rapidly grown into what it describes as Uzbekistan’s leading digital ecosystem, integrating e-commerce, payments, and consumer lending.
Uzum began with an e-commerce marketplace called Uzum Market. It has since expanded into financial services through its digital banking arm, Uzum Bank, and a consumer lending platform named Uzum Nasiya. The company also operates an express food delivery service, Uzum Tezkor, as part of its strategy to build an integrated ecosystem spanning commerce, payments, and banking.
At the time of its August 2025 funding round, Uzum reported more than 17 million monthly active users. Today, its ecosystem reaches about 20 million users, representing more than half of Uzbekistan’s adult population. The marketplace connects over 17,000 local sellers, and services across the ecosystem processed approximately $11 billion in payment volume in 2025. The number of annual transacting users grew to about 4.6 million in 2025, up from around 3 million the previous year.
Chief executive Djasur Djumaev believes Uzbekistan’s retail sector could evolve differently from many other markets, with e-commerce playing a central role. He stated that e-commerce will transform retail in the country, potentially allowing it to leapfrog the traditional retail phase and move directly from bazaars and informal trade into digital commerce.
Uzum’s financial performance has strengthened alongside its expansion. The startup reported revenue of $691 million in 2025, up from $505 million a year earlier, while net income increased to $176 million from $150 million. Its e-commerce marketplace generated $500 million in gross merchandise value and reached EBITDA profitability after three years of operation.
According to Nikolay Seleznev, Uzum’s chief strategy and business development officer, the startup’s fintech operations remain the primary source of profitability within the ecosystem.
Uzum’s digital bank serves around 5 million customers and issued 4.1 million debit cards in 2025, accounting for roughly half of all cards issued in Uzbekistan that year. The startup’s unsecured loan book has grown to $400 million, while total finance volume, the amount of credit disbursed through its platform, reached $1.2 billion in 2025. The company expects to add another 5 million banking customers over the coming year as it expands lending and payment services.
Uzum has been expanding its marketplace beyond domestic sellers by introducing cross-border commerce. This allows Uzbek consumers to order products directly from international merchants. The initiative added nearly 200 million stock-keeping units from markets including Turkey and China. Alongside international inventory, the platform works with local sellers offering around 1.5 million products available for next-day delivery.
To support this growth, Uzum has invested heavily in logistics and physical infrastructure across Uzbekistan. The startup currently operates about 1,500 pickup points nationwide and plans to expand that network to around 3,000 locations by 2026. It also operates approximately 125,000 square meters of warehouse capacity today, with plans to expand to about 500,000 square meters using four logistics centers currently under construction.
Seleznev explained that building logistics infrastructure has been essential for scaling e-commerce in Uzbekistan, where third-party fulfillment providers are still limited. He noted that a company must invest in infrastructure itself to deliver and shift customer expectations.
Uzum plans to use the new funding to expand its fintech infrastructure and deepen its product offerings across both commerce and financial services. This includes investments in additional ATMs, payment acceptance infrastructure, and point-of-sale systems as it works toward building a fully integrated digital banking platform.
Seleznev said Uzum aims to go public within the next few years, likely within three years, though the exact timeline is not yet decided. The startup has been exploring several potential listing venues, including exchanges in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, as it positions itself for global investors.
Uzum currently employs around 12,500 people as it continues expanding its commerce, fintech, and logistics operations across Uzbekistan.