Freedom Holding Corp and the Making of a Modern Financial Super App

Timur Turlov, founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp, reflects on how the business really started. Freedom Holding Corp was launched in late 2008 to help retail investors in Eastern Europe and Central Asia access U.S. stock markets. Early on, Turlov realised that serving retail clients at scale without strong technology simply wasn’t viable, which pushed the company to build its own tech capabilities from the ground up.

That focus on technology quickly became a competitive advantage. As Freedom Holding Corp grew more confident in its digital capabilities, it expanded beyond brokerage into insurance, a sector Turlov saw as under-digitalised and ripe for change. Another shift followed as digital banks began competing with brokers by offering investments as part of broader financial services. To stay relevant and independent, Freedom Holding decided it had to become a digital bank itself.

This led to the launch of Freedom Bank in Kazakhstan and, more recently, the Freedom Super App. Introduced around a year ago, the app brings banking, brokerage, insurance, e-commerce and lifestyle services into one tightly integrated platform, including links to government services. Users can invest, buy insurance, book travel, shop for groceries, buy event tickets, and stream movies all in one place. The approach paid off, with the app becoming the most downloaded app in Kazakhstan’s Apple App Store last year.

The focus then shifts to Renat, a senior technology leader who joined Freedom Holding in 2016, when the group consisted of just a few brokerage-focused companies and a few hundred employees. Freedom Holding Corp now employs more than 10,000 staff, with over 20 business lines, around 70 legal entities, operating across roughly 20 countries and since listing on NASDAQ, the company’s market capitalisation has grown from about $700 million to around $10 billion.

Renat oversees much of the group’s technology landscape, including architecture, cybersecurity, data, analytics, AI, and ecosystem platforms, while also managing IT risk across the organisation; however he’s clear that the biggest challenge isn’t technical. His main role is “building bridges” between teams; aligning people, priorities and communication across a fast-growing group.