Uzbek super-app Uzum raises $130M at $2.3B valuation, led by Oman sovereign funds
What's the deal? What's the deal? Uzum, Uzbekistan's first fintech unicorn, has raised $131.5 million in a strategic round led by sovereign entities of the Sultanate of OmanDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, at a $2.3 billion pre-money valuation (approximately $2.38 billion post-money on the equity component). Existing investors VR CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Tencent, and FinSight VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → also participated.
The round includes $81.5 million in equity and $50 million in convertible notes that will convert to shares at the terms of the next funding round. The funds will go toward expanding Uzum's e-commerce, digital banking, payments, and consumer lending businesses.
More than 20 million people in Uzbekistan use Uzum's platforms, in a country of roughly 38 million — more than half of whom are under 30.
Why now? Uzum is positioning itself for a potential IPO in 2027, with Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, and Nasdaq among the venues under consideration. The new round, at a $2.3 billion valuation, sets a benchmark ahead of that process; one investor has suggested an IPO valuation could exceed $5 billion given current growth rates.
Uzbekistan's digital economy has expanded rapidly since the death of longtime authoritarian leader Islam Karimov in 2016 opened the country to reform. Uzum has been a primary beneficiary, building a super-app that spans banking, e-commerce, and food delivery for a young, digitally mobile population.
What could go wrong? The war in Iran has raised questions about Middle Eastern deal-making activity, though Uzum says it is not dependent on investors from the conflict zone and is in talks with backers from China, Europe, and the US for its next round.
A 2027 IPO is also an ambitious target for a company still scaling across multiple verticals in a frontier market. Regulatory unpredictability and currency risk in Central Asia remain live concerns for international investors.
The signal: Oman's sovereign funds leading a round in a Central Asian super-app is a telling sign of how Gulf capital is broadening its reach — moving beyond regional tech bets into fast-growing emerging markets that larger Western funds have largely ignored.
For Uzbekistan, a $2.3 billion valuation for a homegrown digital platform signals that the country's economic opening is producing companies of genuine international scale.
Sources:
Uzum
Uzum's LinkedIn post
PR Newswire
TechCrunch
Bloomberg
Image credit:
Uzum
J.V.
