Uzbekistan 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.

Chief executive Djasur Djumaev said Uzbekistan’s retail sector could evolve differently from many other markets, with e-commerce playing a central role in that shift.

“Previously, we’ve mentioned that e-commerce is something that’s going to transform into retail,” Djumaev told TechCrunch. “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 performance has grown alongside its expanding ecosystem. The startup reported revenue of $691 million in 2025, up from $505 million a year earlier, while net income rose 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, the company says.

Nikolay Seleznev, Uzum’s chief strategy and business development officer, said the startup’s fintech operations remain the primary source of profitability within the ecosystem.

Uzum’s digital bank currently serves around 5 million customers and issued 4.1 million debit cards in 2025, accounting for about 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. Moreover, the startup expects to add another 5 million banking customers over the coming year as it expands lending and payment services.

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

To support that growth, Uzum has been investing heavily in logistics and physical infrastructure across Uzbekistan. The startup currently operates about 1,500 pickup points nationwide and plans to expand the network to around 3,000 locations by 2026. Further, the startup operates around 125,000 square meters of warehouse capacity today and plans to expand that to about 500,000 square meters using four logistics centers, which it is currently building as part of a broader logistics build-out.

Seleznev told TechCrunch that building logistics infrastructure has been essential for scaling e-commerce in Uzbekistan, where third-party fulfillment providers remain limited.

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

Uzum plans to use the new funding to expand its fintech infrastructure and deepen its product offerings across both commerce and financial services. The startup plans 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, though the exact timeline has yet to be 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.