If you’d told most investors a few years ago that a Kazakhstani brokerage would make it into Stanford Business School’s MBA curriculum, they’d probably have laughed. But that’s exactly what’s happening with Freedom Holding Corp.
Stanford’s new case study digs into how Freedom Holding Corp. went from a small player helping locals access U.S. stock markets to building a massive digital finance ecosystem. It’s a pretty wild ride, featuring everything from launching a bank to gobbling up companies in insurance, e-commerce, and even travel booking.
Freedom Holding: From Local Broker to Fintech Ecosystem
So what’s so interesting about Freedom Holding Corp. that Stanford decided to turn it into a teaching case? For starters, founder Timur Turlov is now facing some big decisions about where to take the business next.
Freedom Holding’s options look like this:
- Double down in Kazakhstan and leave local competitors in the dust
- Expand more in markets it’s already entered abroad
- Or go bold and push into new regions like Southeast Asia or the Middle East
None of these paths are easy. Each one comes with different risks and would force the company to rethink how it handles tech, market entry, and customer acquisition.
But Timur Turlov thinks there’s no reason global fintech success stories have to come from London or New York. “You can build a successful and unique fintech group not only in London or New York but also in Almaty and Astana,” he told Stanford. “The key is to follow your own path systematically rather than simply copying others.”
Buying Their Way to Growth
Freedom Holding’s journey is classic emerging-markets hustle. Timur Turlov and his team started out small, with hardly any big-name backers or brand recognition. Over time, though, they pieced together a financial empire stretching across about 20 countries.
A big part of their playbook was buying up other companies to expand fast. For instance, Freedom launched its own bank, Freedom Bank, which became the group’s financial engine and slashed the cost of attracting new customers.
They also snapped up businesses with low levels of digitalization, like insurance firms Freedom Life and Freedom Insurance. Then they started digitizing everything like crazy. Issuing an auto insurance policy insurance policy SHRUNK from days to just 15 seconds. Processing a claim? Now it takes 15 minutes. By 2025, Freedom controlled about 40% of Kazakhstan’s auto insurance market.
Freedom Bank also went all-in on digitizing mortgages, car loans, and business lending. Loan approval times dropped to a few hours—or even minutes in some cases. As of 2025, the bank held 58% of Kazakhstan’s mortgage market and over 41% of the car loan market, putting it among the country’s top banks.
The SuperApp Play
Then there’s Freedom’s SuperApp, launched in April 2024. It’s a slick platform where users can handle banking, insurance, travel bookings, and shopping—all in one place. One standout feature: a loyalty program that ties cashback to Freedom Holding’s Nasdaq-listed stock (FRHC). The SuperApp immediately took off, with the user base jumping 51% in just a month.
Before the SuperApp, 99% of transactions on Freedom’s platforms flowed through outside banks. Now, with their own payments infrastructure coming online, nearly half of all transactions are being processed in-house—a huge strategic win.
Wall Street Starts Paying Attention
It’s not just Stanford giving Freedom the nod. In early 2025, S&P Global Ratings upgraded the outlook on several of Freedom’s key subsidiaries—including JSC Freedom Finance and Freedom Bank Kazakhstan—from “Stable” to “Positive.” The rating agency cited stronger risk management and compliance as key reasons for the shift.
For Timur Turlov, landing in Stanford’s MBA program is a sign that ideas from outside traditional financial hubs can compete on a global stage. And given how fast Freedom is moving, this might just be the start of the next big emerging-markets fintech story worth watching.
Also read: Rich vs. Wealthy: Understanding the Key Differences and How to Achieve True Financial Freedom
