The Uzbek fintech startup Uzum may enter the international debt market

Uzum, Uzbekistan’s most valuable fintech startup, is considering a debut Eurobond offering before the end of the year. Nikolai Seleznev, the company’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, announced this in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

“We are expanding our unsecured lending business, and as a result, we need a lot of funding. We’re in a very good position: we need a lot of money to make money,” said Seleznev.

Uzum is known as Uzbekistan’s first tech “unicorn.” During its most recent funding round in March, the startup was valued at $2.3 billion. Another funding round is planned for this year. Uzum is also considering the possibility of an IPO.

Until now, Uzum’s growth has been financed by private investments from investors such as China’s Tencent and Oman’s sovereign wealth funds. In addition, local bonds account for about 20% of the company’s financing, Seleznev said earlier. Uzum has become the largest private corporate bond issuer in Uzbekistan’s domestic market. Since 2025, the company has issued local bonds totaling 2.1 trillion sum ($178 million). This month, Uzum increased its financing from the Eurasian Development Bank to $100 million—up from $70 million under the initial loan agreement signed in May.

"Eurobonds will definitely come into our sights when the time is right—perhaps later this year or early next year," Seleznev noted.

According to Bloomberg, debt securities from Central Asian countries have been in high demand among investors in recent years. Uzbek companies are increasingly attracting large order books, but Kazakhstan remains the most active issuer of Eurobonds in the region.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor