EXIT COMPLETE
With the door to the Russian market firmly closed, Freedom Holding Corp. has no plans to return. The fintech group is now fully focused on strategic international markets, investing in its expanding digital ecosystem, growing its geographic footprint, and scaling its SuperApp to reach millions of users globally.
The Page Turned
Freedom Holding Corp. founder, CEO, and majority shareholder Timur Turlov told Bloomberg in a recent interview that the group has no plans to return to the Russian market, where it sold its assets in February 2023. He added that, however unlikely, a return would require rebuilding the business from scratch.
Timur Turlov highlighted that the sale of the Russian assets to local management did not grant Freedom any buyback rights, closing the door on a return to the Russian market. According to Freedom Holding’s CEO, the holding is concentrated on growth in other regions. “Currently, our focus is on expanding in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, where we are developing a digital infrastructure ecosystem,” he noted. “At the same time, we are growing Freedom’s presence in strategic international markets, including Europe, the United States, and the Middle East.”
Freedom Holding’s former Russian business consisted of the investment company Freedom Finance and its namesake bank. Both were sold to the deputy CEO and one of the founders, Maxim Povalishin, for $140 million, and later rebranded asTsifra Broker and Tsifra Bank. Earlier, in June 2022, Turlov obtained Kazakhstani citizenship and renounced his Russian and Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenships, aligning his personal status with the holding’s new regional focus and strategy.
Prehistory
The exit from Russia was just one episode in the story of a group that celebrated its 17th anniversary in 2025. Freedom was founded in 2008 as a brokerage business. In 2011, it began expanding into Kazakhstan. As Timur Turlov recently told bne IntelliNews, within a year after that, the operations in Kazakhstan were fully up and running, providing retail investors with access to U.S. stocks.
A little later, the brokerage business was complemented by banking services, transforming Freedom into a full-fledged financial group, with a presence across several countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Timur Turlov also relocated his family to Almaty.
Going Public
In the fall of 2019, Freedom consolidated its operating businesses under the umbrella of U.S.-incorporated Freedom Holding Corp. and listed its shares on the NASDAQ under the ticker FRHC. Its shares debuted at just over $14 per share.
By the group’s six-year anniversary at Nasdaq in October 2025, the stock was trading at $172.20 per share, giving Freedom a market capitalization of approximately $10.47 billion. During 2025, FRHC reached an intraday high of $194.01 in August, implying a peak market value of roughly $11.76 billion. From its Nasdaq debut to that high, the company’s market capitalization increased more than tenfold — reflecting sustained revenue growth, geographic expansion, and rising investor recognition. As of January 2026, according to Nasdaq data, Freedom Holding Corp.’s market capitalization stands at approximately $7.1 billion, slightly below its summer 2025 peak due to normal market fluctuations, but still several times higher than at its 2019 listing.
As the main owner of Freedom, Timur Turlov is Kazakhstan’s secondrichest businessman, with an estimated net worth of around $5.8 billion. He has steadily risen in Forbes billionaire rankings and, at the end of 2025, was included in the global “40 Under 40” list, reflecting both his financial success and growing international business influence.
Digital Developments
In recent years, Freedom Holding has been progressively building an integrated digital ecosystem. Over time, the group expanded into insurance, lifestyle, and telecom services, accessible through the innovative Freedom SuperApp, which allows customers to interact via simple voice commands.
Freedom’s early bet on a unified digital ecosystem and its app hit the wave of global trends and delivered tangible results. By the end of Q3 of the 2026 fiscal year (ended December 31, 2025), Freedom’s platform — the only application in the world officially named “SuperApp” — had 4.3 million users, an increase of 1.2 million from the previous quarter. Considering that Kazakhstan has roughly 9 million active adult internet users, over a third of the population now chooses the SuperApp, which puts Freedom on par with leading global players in penetration. Besides this, its Superapp also demonstrates one of the fastest growth rates among fintech apps in Central Asia, ranking among the top three most downloaded free apps on Apple and Android app stores in Kazakhstan.
Leveraging this success, the group plans to grow the user base to 8 million by the end of 2026 and expand the app into the U.S. market.
Scaling Up
While further expanding its digital ecosystem, Freedom Holding Corp. is broadening its international footprint. Headquartered in Kazakhstan, the group now operates in 22 countries in Eurasia and North America. In 2025, it secured a brokerage license in the UAE and opened subsidiary banks in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In 2026, the company plans to launch a bank in Georgia, acquire one in Turkey, and add a second bank in Kazakhstan.
Scaling the business is reflected in strong financial results. In 3Q 2025, Freedom reported revenue of $628.6 million, bringing total revenue for the first nine months of the fiscal year to $1.69 billion. Net income for the third quarter amounted to $76.2 million, while for the first nine months of the fiscal year it reached $144.5 million. As of December 31, 2025, the total assets of Freedom Holding reached $12.38 billion, 25% higher than at the end of the previous fiscal year, $9.91 billion.
To support the future growth, Freedom Holding is preparing U.S. bond placements targeting $300–500 million and is exploring additional yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong. Proceeds will also fund major telecom and technology projects in Kazakhstan, including a sovereign AI center with Nvidia (100 MW capacity, $2 billion investment), nationwide Starlink broadband deployment, implementation of ChatGPT Edu in partnership with OpenAI and the Kazakh government, as well as advanced data centers to provide cloud services for clients such as Amazon and Microsoft, deliver telecom solutions and computing power to corporate clients.
