Biography of Timur Turlov

By 2024, Freedom Holding Corp., which began as a small brokerage firm, had grown into an international fintech ecosystem with offices in 21 countries.

1. Freedom Bank (formerly Kassa Nova Bank) is a digital bank and one of the key components of the holding’s ecosystem. It ranks among the largest banking institutions in Kazakhstan. By the end of 2025, its SuperApp had become the most downloaded financial application in the country, with more than 6 million users. In 2025, a fully digital subsidiary bank was launched in Tajikistan. In 2026, Freedom Holding announced the acquisition of Turkish Bank and expansion into the banking markets of Georgia and Europe.
2. Freedom Broker provides access to the Kazakhstan market (KASE and AIX) as well as trading on international exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange, HKEX, Frankfurt Stock Exchange). The company operates within the Astana International Financial Centre under English common law principles. By the end of 2026, the total number of client accounts exceeded 350,000, while annual trading turnover reached $98 billion. In 2025, the company reported a profit of $157 million.
3. Freedom24 is the group’s European division. It serves more than 440,000 client accounts with assets exceeding $11 billion and access to over 1 million financial instruments. Its headquarters are located in Limassol, Cyprus, with offices in more than ten European countries. In 2025, the company generated $252.7 million in profit.
4. Tradernet is the company’s proprietary trading platform that unites several Freedom brokers across different jurisdictions. Available in 19 languages, it provides users with daily access to thousands of financial instruments, including stocks, bonds, options, and cryptocurrencies, as well as investment analytics, ideas, and a 24/7 stream of key business news.
5. Freedom Pay is an international payment service for businesses, providing convenient and reliable payment solutions that help clients increase sales and improve customer experience.
6. Freedom Life and Freedom Insurance are insurance companies within the ecosystem serving 4 million clients across Kazakhstan, with the ability to open insurance contracts online. They are among the leaders of the country’s insurance market. One of the most popular products is investment-linked life insurance. Freedom Finance Insurance, which specializes in motor insurance, is developing the DTP.kz online claims system and CASCO products using insurance scoring technologies.
7. Freedom Telecom is a telecommunications company providing broadband internet access and open Wi‑Fi across all major cities of Kazakhstan. In early 2026, the company announced a strategic partnership with Nokia and the launch of a joint innovation laboratory in California. It also participates in the development of the holding’s computing infrastructure.
8. Freedom Ticketon is the largest ticket retailer in Kazakhstan. It operates in four Central Asian countries, with a total active user base exceeding 2.5 million people.
9. Freedom Lifestyle combines consumer services such as the Arbuz online supermarket, restaurant food delivery, the Freedom Mobile electronics retail chain, the Freedom Drive automotive services marketplace, the Naimi.kz recruitment platform, the Freedom Media media platform, the Freedom Travel travel service, and MedTech projects.

More than 11 million people use Freedom ecosystem products and services.

Global Expansion of the Holding

Freedom Holding Corp.’s market capitalization on NASDAQ exceeds $9 billion. Timur Turlov is the company’s majority shareholder, holding a 71% stake. As of the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, Freedom Holding Corp.’s total assets amounted to $12.38 billion, up 25% from the end of the previous fiscal year ($9.91 billion).

In March 2026, S&P Global Ratings affirmed Freedom Holding Corp.’s long-term credit rating at B- with a stable outlook. The agency also affirmed the ratings of the holding’s subsidiaries — JSC Freedom Finance, Freedom Finance Europe Ltd., Freedom Finance Global PLC, and Freedom Bank Kazakhstan — at B+/B with a positive outlook.

Freedom Holding Corp. is included in The Motley Fool’s Moneyball investment portfolio and in the Russell 3000 Index. Major institutional investors include BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan.

Freedom Holding Corp. is regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA), and national regulators in its countries of operation.

The group has offices in 21 countries, including the United States, Kazakhstan, the UAE, Germany, France, Spain, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Greece, the United Kingdom, and Cyprus.

In 2020, Timur Turlov acquired the U.S. broker-dealer Prime Executions Inc., which is registered with the SEC and is a member of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, FINRA, and SIPC.

In 2021, Cyprus-based Freedom Finance Europe Ltd., part of Freedom Holding Corp., obtained direct membership in Euroclear, one of the world’s leading international central securities depositories.

In January 2022, Prime Executions received authorization from the U.S. regulator FINRA to conduct capital markets and investment banking activities, as well as underwriting operations.

In 2023, Freedom Capital Markets, a division within Prime Executions, began bringing technology companies to U.S. exchanges as an IPO and SPO underwriter and organizer.

In March 2023, Freedom Holding Corp. completed the acquisition of LD Micro, a U.S. conference platform for small-cap companies.

In 2024, the holding launched its own Freedom currency — a bonus program in which cashback is accrued in tenge and linked to ETNs based on the holding’s own shares.

In November 2025, Freedom Holding Corp., NVIDIA, and Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development and Artificial Intelligence signed an agreement to establish a sovereign AI center valued at $2 billion with a capacity of 100 MW. At the same time, an agreement was signed with OpenAI to provide ChatGPT Edu access to 165,000 teachers across the country.

Since January 2023, Timur Turlov has served as President of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation. Over three years, Freedom Holding Corp. allocated approximately $30 million to the development of chess in Kazakhstan. In 2025 alone, the holding contributed $11.2 million through Freedom Holding, Freedom Broker, and the Freedom Shapagat Foundation. These investments were reflected in the results of Kazakhstan’s national chess team: in 2023, four Kazakh chess players became world champions; in 2024 — six; and in 2025 — already 14, including junior and cadet categories.

Since 2023, Timur Turlov has also been one of the initiators of the QJ League youth football project in Kazakhstan and serves as Chairman of the League’s Board of Trustees. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Kazakhstan Football Federation.

Freedom Holding Corp. actively cooperates with the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. In 2023, Timur Turlov and Freedom Holding Corp., together with USAID, supported the Fund’s pilot project to plant black saxaul trees on 150 hectares in order to restore the Aral ecosystem. In February 2024, Freedom Bank launched the Araldy Saqta payment deposit card, whose increased cashback is automatically transferred to the fund.

Timur Turlov also launched QALAM, a multimedia historical and educational online platform offering broad access to the history of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

At the end of 2023, Freedom Holding Corp. published its first Sustainability Report. ESG principles include environmental responsibility, fair treatment of employees and clients, corporate transparency, and participation in charitable initiatives.

In August 2023, the Freedom Shapagat corporate foundation was established to centrally manage the holding’s charitable and sponsorship activities related to sustainable development. In spring 2024, Timur Turlov and the foundation launched an environmental culture project — a network of recycling machines for collecting plastic and aluminum containers for further processing (currently developing in Almaty and Astana).

In May 2024, Timur Turlov became Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the UN Global Compact in Central Asia, created to effectively address cross-border issues related to water, ecology, hunger and poverty, infrastructure, energy, and food security.

In total, Freedom Holding Corp. has allocated more than 100 billion tenge to charitable projects in Kazakhstan.

Timur Turlov is married and has six children. He lives in Almaty with his family.

In his free time, Turlov plays chess with his children, reads science fiction, and enjoys hiking and cycling.