At a time when the world feels increasingly divided between East and West, Uzbekistan has emerged as a rare middle ground, as the Central Asian nation’s homegrown unicorn, Uzum, has raised $65.5 million in a new funding round co-led by China’s Tencent and the New York- and London-based VR Capital, with participation from U.S.-based FinSight Capital.
The all-equity round brings the Tashkent-headquartered startup’s post-money valuation to approximately $1.5 billion — a nearly 30% jump from the $1.16 billion valuation it announced when it first hit unicorn status in March last year.
Founded in 2022, Uzum started its journey in Uzbekistan with an e-commerce marketplace called Uzum Market, and shortly after its success, the startup added fintech with a debit card and later expanded into its express food delivery service, Uzum Tezkor.
Uzum currently boasts over 17 million monthly active users — nearly half of Uzbekistan’s adult population, or about two-thirds of all smartphone users in the country — and 16,000 merchants. In the first half of 2025 alone, the startup recorded $250 million in gross merchandise value (GMV), up nearly 1.5 times year-over-year.
Its digital banking arm, Uzum Bank, launched a co-branded Visa debit card with pre-approved credit limits in August last year. That product has already issued 2 million cards and is on track to surpass 5 million by year-end. Meanwhile, Uzum’s unsecured lending business hit $200 million in financed volume in Q1, growing 3.4 times from the same period last year. The startup also posted $150 million in net income in 2024 — a 50% year-over-year jump.
With a portfolio spanning e-commerce, fintech, and digital banking, how has a startup just over three years old managed to scale this quickly — and draw the attention of global investors like Tencent?
Uzum founder and CEO Djasur Djumaev attributes the success to a combination of deep local knowledge and disciplined execution. He believes that understanding the country’s culture, consumer behavior, and business environment — and pairing that with the technical and operational expertise that global companies have developed — has been critical to building a business that can scale quickly and sustainably.
Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They’re here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise on August 7. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They’re here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW
The startup built its digital and physical infrastructure from scratch to kick off its business in Uzbekistan. This includes setting a logistics capacity that has grown to than 112,000 square meters, with a storage capacity of 1.1 million square feet, allowing it to process more than 200,000 orders per day.
The startup has also set up more than 1,500 pickup points across 450 cities, towns, settlements, and villages in the country to enable next-day deliveries. These pickup points also allow the issuance and distribution of Uzum Bank cards.
... continue reading