Uzbekistan’s First Unicorn, Uzum, an all-in-one e-commerce and fintech startup, just bagged a fresh $65.5 million in funding, with Chinese giant Tencent and global investors like VR Capital and FinSight Ventures betting big on its vision. The new round values Uzum at $1.5 billion, a 30% leap from its last unicorn valuation in 2024.
In just three years, Uzum has gone from an ambitious online marketplace to a full-blown digital empire. We are talking e-commerce, express food delivery, digital banking, lending, all under one roof. With 17 million monthly users (that’s nearly half the adult population of Uzbekistan), Uzum isn’t just scaling, it is sprinting.
CEO and founder Djasur Djumaev says the magic lies in pairing deep cultural understanding with world-class tech execution. Uzum didn’t just build an app; it laid down the physical and digital infrastructure to back it up. Think: 112,000 sqm in logistics space, 200K orders per day, and over 1,500 pickup points across 450 locations.
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And it is not slowing down anytime soon. The company plans to roll out deposit products and long-term credit options by the end of the year. It is also opening its e-commerce doors to cross-border merchants from China and Turkey, and scaling up its QR payments and AI-powered services for fraud protection, credit scoring, and personalized recommendations. No surprise Tencent wanted in after months of courtship.
With a team of over 12,000 and sights set on a $250M–$300M Series B in 2026 (and possibly a public debut after that), Uzum is not just building a business; it is building an empire in one of the world’s fastest-growing digital frontiers. Can a homegrown startup from Central Asia become a global fintech and e-commerce heavyweight? Uzum is betting on it, and now, so are some of the world’s biggest investors.
