Uzum becomes Uzbekistan’s first tech start-up valued at over $1bn

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Uzum, an Uzbek provider of digital services including e-commerce and online banking, has become Uzbekistan’s first technology start-up with a value of more than $1bn through a recent round of financing.

Uzum raised $114m in a combination of Series A funding, which was led by Bengaluru-based venture capital firm FinSight Ventures, and debt financing, according to a statement from the Tashkent-headquartered company.

This made Uzum Uzbekistan’s first tech “unicorn”, a designation used for start-ups whose value exceeds $1bn.

The Series A investors, who put $52m into Uzum, were promised stakes of less than 5 per cent in the company.

Uzum plans to raise about $200m in a Series B round in 2024 from investors in the Middle East, Britain and the United States, the statement said.

Uzum is a digital ecosystem that includes a marketplace, an express delivery service, banks, a buy now, pay later (BNPL) system and an app for entrepreneurs.

By the end of 2023, Uzum had made a net profit of a little less than $100m and on average had 10m monthly users.

Its retail banking and financial technology units were among the leading profit-makers in their sector as of the end of 2023. Its e-commerce platform had a turnover of about $150m and had more customers and was processing more orders than any other e-commerce system in Uzbekistan. 

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