EXCLUSIVE: “Freedom Calling” – Timur Turlov, Freedom Holding Corp in ‘The Paytech Magazine’

Timur Turlov is building a financial ecosystem in Kazakhstan, which could serve as a blueprint to expand not just across Central Asia, but the world. In this special Q&A with the Founder of Freedom Holding Corp, Turlov explains his superapp strategy and why his door is open to hyperscalers

THE PAYTECH MAGAZINE: Can you give us a snapshot of the company’s growth path and where it is now?

TIMUR TURLOV: I launched Freedom in late 2008 to allow people in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to access the US stock market. We saw we were good at building technology so we began expanding into other services, including insurance, which remains much less digitalised than brokerage. At the same time, digital banks were starting to compete directly with brokers, so if we wanted to remain independent and continue growing, we had to evolve into a digital bank ourselves. That led us to launch Freedom Bank in Kazakhstan, which became the foundation of our ecosystem. We continued expanding into telecommunications, e-commerce and other digital services — all designed to work together within one integrated platform. So, what began as a brokerage-only company, evolved into Freedom Holding Corp, a US-based public company listed on NASDAQ.

In 2024, we launched our Freedom Super App, where customers can manage their finances, invest, make payments, buy tickets for a football match or concert, arrange travel, or even watch a movie. It’s not just a financial app – it’s a true super-app, a full digital ecosystem designed to simplify everyday life.

TPM: The Freedom Superapp has rapidly evolved into one of the most advanced multi-vertical ecosystems in the region. What was the thought process behind it?

“I definitely want to build not just one of the most advanced and competitive ecosystems in my country; I want to build that in the region and then globally”

Timur Turlov

TT: Some services can acquire customers very cheaply, but it’s very difficult for them to retain them. For others, like insurance and investments, acquisition is harder, and the cost of it is significantly higher. Banks, however, are among the most trusted institutions, so it’s much easier to upsell customers to more complex services. Different services [in our ecosystem] complement each other, too. You can make the payments experience much smoother, for example, if a customer holds an account with Freedom Bank. If we already have customers’ information, it becomes much easier for them to buy, for instance, an airline ticket through the platform. Instead of going to a separate service, they can simply open the banking app they use every day, click a button, and buy the ticket. It’s easier, faster, and often cheaper than via an external provider.

And customers are starting to see day-to-day savings, too, because our loyalty programme gives cash back creating unique experiences. Some of the services are contributing frequency. Some are contributing retention. Others are contributing confidence and trust. All of them benefit from being part of the ecosystem.

TPM: Kazakhstan isn’t seen as a global fintech centre. What makes it a good environment for building a platform of this scale?

TT: We have a lot of well-educated people, for a start. The majority of our 10,000 employees speak English. Kazakhstan also has a very young population, and our GDP per capita is higher than in neighbouring markets, or the rest of Central Asia combined. Both the population and the government are very tech-optimistic. We adopt technology very fast, and that rapid adoption has created a unique sandbox in a relatively small market of about 20 million people.

The general cost of doing business and R&D is much lower here, too. It’s difficult to invest if you don’t know whether something will work. Lower costs mean we’re not afraid to experiment and make mistakes. Currently, we’re working hard on training and deploying AI across our ecosystem to create a true personal assistant who will help customers manage their finances, maybe help with their taxes, order food or recommend a movie, or just answer everyday questions.

I believe that, based on some OpenAI and open-source technology, we will create this unique enabler to give ordinary people the same quality of personal service that only high-net-worths were able to enjoy before. Yes, it is a blueprint. I want to build not just one of the most advanced and competitive ecosystems in my country; I want to build that in the region first, and then globally.

That’s why we’re expanding in Europe with our brokerage services, that’s why we’re going to Kyrgyzstan, to Georgia, to Tajikistan. We’re also going to Turkey and look to further develop our presence in the United States. Our success will depend on how many countries we’ll finally be able to serve because the competition is already becoming regional and global.

TPM: Freedom Holding Corp has recently announced some significant events around artificial intelligence: a partnership with OpenAI, and a $2billion sovereign AI wealth hub with Nvidia. This touches on AI infrastructure in the region. How important could Kazakhstan be to the world?

TT: If you take a look at the map to see where, for example, the hyperscalers’ data centres are in Eurasia, you will find almost nothing between Poland and South Korea. That’s why we needed to build our own corporate Clouds because we can’t rely on anyone. There’s nobody there. I believe that we will not just build our national Clouds. We will be happy to work with hyperscalers and let them serve the macro region through Kazakhstan.

In terms of the AI partnerships, AI training is a very global market. If you have some compute anywhere in the world, you can exchange it for training. Usually the market is in deficit: more people need compute than there is available in the training room. So we can serve customers
anywhere in the world. We just need to provide some attractive terms for that. Kazakhstan has a lot of things in its favour. We have a stable political situation and growing FDI inflows. We have investment-grade credit rating. No capital movement restrictions. It’s a favourable tax regime, and we still have quite cheap energy in our country, which means we have the potential to create a unique AI hub that will serve all of Central Asia.

TPM: Traditional financial institutions still operate largely within very narrow verticals. What competitive advantage does a unified digital ecosystem give you?

TT: Large banks are very powerful. But at the end of the day, they may be inefficient. The bigger you become, the more trust you usually gain. And the longer you exist, the easier it is to move forward. But while legacy is helping with that, it is killing you at the same time. We definitely have some room to compete with them now; to even rethink the sector itself.

The key advantage of digital banks is that we can do everything much cheaper, much faster. It may take some time [to build as big as a legacy bank]. But this may happen very, very fast, as we’ve seen in Kazakhstan. Before 2020, 80 per cent of payments in the country were cash payments. Now it’s around 12 per cent. If you have the right product, sooner or later, customers will appreciate that.

And we will consume much less resource redistributing money and facilitating transactions. That should unlock a lot of opportunities because the cost to the customer for financial services will be much smaller. That’s good because people will be able to do something more useful with their money. At the end of the day, the financial sector will become much smaller in terms of GDP.

TPM: What role do you see Freedom playing in the future of global financial services? And, in particular, is there strong growth potential for Freedom in the US?

“I believe I still can do something good for my customers, for my country, for other countries. I can create something meaningful”

Timur Turlov

TT: We already operate a licensed broker-dealer in the US, providing market research and institutional investment services. This gives us a strong foundation to expand our financial offerings in America. And, if you study Freedom, you will see that we actually have many dozens of potential unicorns as different subsidiaries, different products – development of core banking, card processing systems, payments, buy-now-pay-later, etc.

Potentially, we can go to other markets to provide those solutions. The cost of origination of a mortgage loan in the US, for example, is now more than $10,500. In Kazakhstan, we spend $200. And that shows how much efficiency technology can bring to financial services I may outsource accounting. I may outsource parts of credit decision-making. But technology is something I will keep in-house because a digital bank, let alone a digital ecosystem of services, is fundamentally a technology company. The real assets of this company are its technology and the talent that builds it.

TPM: You’ve built this company from the ground up to be very successful. You have a lot of happy customers. So why not sit on a beach drinking Mai Tais? Why keep doing this?

TT: I really believe that a person can be happy only if he is contributing something; if he can finally create more than he will take from society. I believe I still can do something good for my customers, for my country, for other countries. I can create something meaningful.

I want to be able to compete as long as I can to survive in this fast-transforming global industry. It’s very hard to imagine just finishing my career. It would be very boring.

This article was published in The Paytech Magazine Issue #18, Page 10-12