Uzbekistan unicorn Uzum has raised USD 65.5 million is latest funding round, co-led by China’s Tencent and the New York- and London-based VR Capital, with participation from US-based FinSight Capital.
The all-equity round brings the company’s post-money valuation to around USD 1.5 billion, a 30% increase from the USD 1.16 million valuation made in March 2024. Uzum started with an ecommerce marketplace named Uzum Market, slowly adding fintech with a debit card and expanding into its express food delivery service, Uzum Tezkor. Additionally, its digital banking arm, Uzum Bank, rolled out a co-branded Visa debit card with pre-approved credit limits in August 2024, which aims to issue 5 million cards by the end of this year.
More about Uzum
Initially, Uzum operated on a fulfilled-by-operator model to enable e-commerce deliveries. Now, the unicorn expanded to include ecommerce, fintech, and banking solutions, including fulfilment-by-seller and delivery-by-seller options, with a goal of routing 20–30% of deliveries through these new models. This will also help the company grow its stock-keeping units.
The funds will enable Uzum to launch a deposit product in September 2025, as well as a long-term credit facility for its B2C customers. Additionally, it plans to grow its merchant base and support its existing merchants by offering a QR code payment processing system, expanding its Visa debit card programme, and creating new solutions for SMEs in Uzbekistan.
Uzum also plans to introduce more products to its ecommerce business, including those helping to generate advertisement revenues, working toward growing its financial infrastructure with AI embedded across credit scoring, fraud detection and prevention, and personalised user journeys.
The unicorn has plans to open up its ecommerce marketplace for international merchants, starting with those in China and Türkiye in September, as it is projecting that up to 15% of cross-border activity will come from these countries. Additionally, Uzum aims to become public in the medium term, aiming to raise a Series B round of USD 250 – USD 300 million in the first half of 2026.
