GoKawiilUzbekistan fintech Uzum has reached a $2.3 billion valuation — about 53% higher than just seven months ago — as investors place growing bets on the country’s emerging digital economy.
The valuation stems from a $131.5 million investment led by sovereign wealth funds from Oman, with participation from existing investors including Tencent, VR Capital, and FinSight Ventures. This round comprises $81.5 million in equity and $50 million in convertible financing tied to Uzum’s next funding round, as the startup targets a potential $250 million to $300 million pre-IPO raise in the second half of 2026 or early 2027.
In August, Uzum raised $65.5 million raise at a $1.5B valuation. It had become the country’s first unicorn (a startup surpassing over a billion dollar valuation) in March 2024.
This fresh investment comes as Uzbekistan, Central Asia’s most populous country, emerges as one of the region’s fastest-growing digital economies, driven by a young population, rapid smartphone adoption, and low penetration of online retail and banking services.
Founded in 2022, Uzum quickly grew into Uzbekistan’s leading “digital ecosystem,” as it describes its business, combining e-commerce, payments, and consumer lending.
Building Uzbekistan’s digital ecosystem
Uzum began with an e-commerce marketplace, Uzum Market, and has since expanded into financial services through its digital banking arm, Uzum Bank, and consumer lending platform, Uzum Nasiya. The startup 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 previous funding round in August 2025, Uzum reported more than 17 million monthly active users on its platform. Today, the ecosystem reaches about 20 million users — more than half of Uzbekistan’s adult population. Its marketplace connects over 17,000 local sellers, and services across the ecosystem processed around $11 billion in payment volume in 2025. The number of annual transacting users rose to about 4.6 million in 2025 from around 3 million a year earlier.
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