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Uzbekistan’s first unicorn, Uzum, leaps to a $1.5B valuation
Uzbekistan's Uzum has raised $65.5 million in a new funding round co-led by China's Tencent and the New York- and London-based VR Capital, with participation from U.S.-based FinSight Capital.
With a portfolio spanning e-commerce, fintech, and digital banking, how has a startup just over three years old managed to scale this quickly — and draw the attention of global investors like Tencent? “Betting on local expertise and infrastructure in frontier markets gives you an advantage to then perform and scale your business very fast,” Djumaev told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview. When asked what brought Tencent onto its cap-table this time, Uzum’s chief strategy and business development officer, Nikolay Seleznev, told TechCrunch the startup’s strong growth metrics convinced the Chinese investor to come on board after several quarters of ongoing discussions.
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