The valuation of Ozum Company in Uzbekistan jumps more than 50% in seven months to reach $2.3 billion.

Uzbekistan fintech Uzum has reached a valuation of $2.3 billion — about 53% higher than it was just seven months ago — as investors increasingly place 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 includes $81.5 million in equity and $50 million in convertible financing tied to Uzum’s next funding round, with the startup targeting a potential raise of $250 million to $300 million before going public in the second half of 2026 or early 2027.

In August, Uzum raised a $65.5 million raise at a $1.5 billion valuation. It became the country’s first unicorn (a startup valued at more than $1 billion) in March 2024.

This new investment comes as Uzbekistan, the most populous country in Central Asia, emerges as one of the region’s fastest-growing digital economies, driven by its young population, rapid smartphone adoption, and low penetration of retail and online banking services.

Founded in 2022, Uzum has quickly grown into Uzbekistan’s leading “digital ecosystem,” as it describes its business, which combines e-commerce, payments and consumer lending.

Building the digital ecosystem in Uzbekistan

Uzum started 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 a take-away 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 the adult population of Uzbekistan. Its marketplace connects more than 17,000 local sellers, and services across the ecosystem process about $11 billion in payments volume in 2025. The number of annual transaction users rose to about 4.6 million in 2025 from about 3 million the previous year.

Uzbekistan’s retail sector could develop differently from many other markets, with e-commerce playing a central role in this transformation, said CEO Jasur Gumaev.

“We mentioned earlier that e-commerce is something that will transition into retail,” Dzhumaev told TechCrunch. “It will bypass the traditional retail phase in the country, moving from bazaars and informal trade directly to digital commerce.”

Fintech drives profitability

Uzum’s financial performance has grown alongside its expanding ecosystem. The startup reported revenue of $691 million in 2025, up from $505 million the previous year, while net income rose to $176 million from $150 million. The company says its e-commerce marketplace generated $500 million in gross merchandise value and achieved EBITDA after three years of operation.

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

Uzum Digital Bank currently serves about 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 its total funding volume – the amount of credit disbursed through its platform – will reach $1.2 billion in 2025. Furthermore, the startup expects to add another 5 million banking customers over the next year as it expands its lending and payment services.

Ozum has also expanded its market beyond local sellers by introducing cross-border trade, allowing Uzbek consumers to order products directly from international merchants. The startup said the initiative added nearly 200 million stock keeping units (SKU) from markets including Türkiye and China. Along with international inventory, the platform works with local sellers to make approximately 1.5 million products available for next day delivery.

To support this growth, Ozum has invested heavily in logistics and physical infrastructure throughout Uzbekistan. The startup currently operates around 1,500 pickup points nationwide and plans to expand the network to around 3,000 locations by 2026. Furthermore, the startup operates around 125,000 square meters of warehouse capacity today and plans to expand that to around 500,000 square meters using four logistics centres, which it is currently building as part of a wider logistics buildout.

Seleznev told TechCrunch that building logistics infrastructure was essential for expanding e-commerce in Uzbekistan, where third-party service providers are still limited.

“You need to invest in the infrastructure yourself to meet and change customer expectations,” he said.

Uzum plans to use the new funding to expand its fintech infrastructure and deepen its product offerings across commerce and financial services. The startup plans to invest in additional ATMs, payment acceptance infrastructure, and point-of-sale systems as it works to build a fully integrated digital banking platform.

Ozum aims to go public within the next few years, likely within three years, although the exact timeline has yet to be determined, Seleznev said. The startup has been exploring several potential listing venues, including stock exchanges in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, as it positions itself to global investors.

Uzum currently employs approximately 12,500 people, as it continues to expand its business, fintech and logistics operations throughout Uzbekistan.