Uzum’s valuation jumps past $2.3 billion after surging more than 50% in seven months

Uzbekistan fintech company Uzum has reached a valuation of $2.3 billion, roughly 53% higher than it was just seven months ago, as investors continue to increase their bets on the country's fast-developing digital economy.

The new valuation comes from a $131.5 million investment round led by Oman's sovereign wealth funds, with participation from existing backers including Tencent, VR Capital, and FinSight Ventures. The financing consists of $81.5 million in equity and an additional $50 million in convertible financing linked to Uzum's next funding round, as the startup aims for a $250 million to $300 million pre-IPO raise in the second half of 2026 or early 2027.

Back in August, Uzum raised $65.5 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. It had already become Uzbekistan's first unicorn — a startup valued at more than $1 billion — in March 2024.

The new funding arrives as Uzbekistan, the most populous country in Central Asia, is increasingly being seen as one of the region's fastest-growing digital economies. A young population is driving that growth, along with rapidly rising smartphone adoption and relatively low penetration of online retail and banking services.

Founded in 2022, Uzum quickly grew into what it describes as Uzbekistan's leading "digital ecosystem," combining e-commerce, payments, and consumer lending.

Building Uzbekistan's digital ecosystem

Uzum started with its e-commerce marketplace, Uzum Market, and has since expanded into financial services through its digital banking arm, Uzum Bank, and its consumer lending business, Uzum Nasiya. The company also runs an express food delivery service, Uzum Tezkor, as part of its wider effort to create an integrated ecosystem across commerce, payments, and banking.

At the time of its previous funding round in August 2025, Uzum reported more than 17 million monthly active users across its platform. Today, that ecosystem reaches about 20 million users, more than half of Uzbekistan's adult population. Its marketplace connects more than 17,000 local sellers, and services across the ecosystem processed roughly $11 billion in payment volume in 2025. The number of annual transacting users rose to around 4.6 million in 2025 from about 3 million the year before.

Chief executive Djasur Djumaev said Uzbekistan's retail market may develop differently from many other countries, with e-commerce playing a central role in that transformation.

"Previously, we've mentioned that e-commerce is something that's going to transform into retail," Djumaev said. "It will leapfrog the traditional retail phase in the country, moving from bazaars and informal trade directly into digital commerce."

Fintech driving profitability

Uzum's financial results have expanded alongside the growth of its wider ecosystem. The startup reported revenue of $691 million in 2025, compared with $505 million a year earlier, while net income rose to $176 million from $150 million. According to the company, its e-commerce marketplace generated $500 million in gross merchandise value and reached EBITDA profitability after three years of operation.

Nikolay Seleznev, Uzum's chief strategy and business development officer, said the company's fintech activities remain the primary source of profitability within the broader ecosystem.

Uzum's digital bank currently serves around 5 million customers and issued 4.1 million debit cards in 2025, representing about half of all cards issued in Uzbekistan that year. The startup's unsecured loan book has expanded to $400 million, while total finance volume — the total amount of credit distributed through its platform — reached $1.2 billion in 2025. In addition, the company expects to add another 5 million banking customers over the next year as it expands both its lending and payment services.

Uzum has also been broadening its marketplace beyond domestic merchants by introducing cross-border commerce, allowing Uzbek shoppers to order directly from international sellers. The startup said that the move added nearly 200 million stock-keeping units, or SKUs, from markets including Turkey and China. Alongside that international inventory, the platform also works with local merchants, offering around 1.5 million products available for next-day delivery.

To support that expansion, Uzum has been making significant investments in logistics and physical infrastructure throughout Uzbekistan. The company currently operates around 1,500 pickup points across the country and plans to expand the network to roughly 3,000 locations by 2026. It also operates about 125,000 square meters of warehouse capacity today. It plansto increase it to about 500,000 square meters through four logistics centres now being built as part of a larger logistics expansion.

Seleznev said that building logistics infrastructure has been critical to scaling e-commerce in Uzbekistan, where third-party fulfilment providers remain limited.

"You need to invest in infrastructure yourself to deliver and shift customer expectations," he said.

Uzum plans to use the latest funding to expand its fintech infrastructure further and strengthen its product offerings across financial services and commerce. The company intends to invest 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, although the exact timing has not yet been finalised. The startup has been considering several possible listing venues, including stock exchanges in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, as it prepares for global investors.

Uzum currently employs around 12,500 people as it continues expanding its commerce, fintech, and logistics businesses across Uzbekistan.