According to a report prepared based on open sources by Pivot.uz, during the first quarter of 2026 (January, February, March), local and global venture capital funds invested a total of $146 million into 19 startups. Out of these 19 deals, 16 involved local startups, while 3 were directed toward startups that have entered foreign markets.
Of the total $146 million investment, $131.5 million was attributed directly to Uzum. This stands as the largest deal of the year, where international investors—VR Capital, Tencent, and FinSight—invested in Uzbekistan’s largest e-commerce platform during its Series A round.
Aloqa Ventures invested a total of $320,000 across 5 startups. During the same quarter, Imkon Ventures funded 6 startups—Darstop, Asaxiy Invest, Karmon AI, Orif AI, Haysam School, and Rentzor—with a total investment of $205,000. This averages approximately $34,000 per deal.
IT Park Ventures and United Ventures co-invested $900,000 in the OX Group project and $200,000 in the Smartcast startup. This is a positive indicator for the ecosystem. Co-investment is a common practice in developed ecosystems, signaling that funds are choosing collaboration over competition. Such an approach ensures more reliable and sustainable support for startups.
This quarter also marked the first time the SportTech sector appeared in a public deal within the Uzbekistan ecosystem, as Angel investors injected $300,000 into the Deepen startup.
When examining the distribution by stages, one issue becomes immediately apparent: while many startups are being launched, scaling them remains a challenge. The Pre-Seed stage saw the highest number of deals with 7 startups, yet received the lowest total funding amount at $355,000. Only 2 startups reached the Series A stage, totaling $143 million (largely due to Uzum).
Starting a startup and attracting initial investment in Uzbekistan has become significantly easier. However, the mechanism for scaling projects from small-scale to medium and large-scale is not yet fully established. Systematically organizing the growth process for startups will be the primary strategic objective for the ecosystem in the coming years.
All information was collected based on open sources. Get the full Q1 report via the link.
