From Groceries to Travel: Freedom Holding Corp.’s E-Commerce Segment Featured in Forbes Ranking

Kazakhstan’s e-commerce growth slowed to 12.7% in 2025, but the market has become more mature and is reaching a broader audience, according to experts cited by Forbes Kazakhstan. Seven companies from the Freedom ecosystem were included in the publication’s ranking, ranging from Arbuz.kz and Freedom Travel to Freedom Mobile and Naimi.kz.

Kazakhstan’s e-commerce market is slowing in terms of growth but becoming more mature, according to experts surveyed by Forbes Kazakhstan. Consumers are making greater use of digital services, ecosystem platforms are playing an increasingly important role, and the gap between the country’s largest cities and its regions is narrowing, the magazine reports.

According to estimates by audit and consulting firm Baker Tilly Qazaqstan Advisory, Kazakhstan’s e-commerce market reached KZT 4.3 trillion ($9.46 billion) in 2025. The market grew by 12.7% over the year, compared with annual growth rates of 30–35% since 2021, depending on the estimate. Forbes experts link the market’s further development to a broader customer base, improved delivery quality, and greater availability of online product offerings in the regions.

The publication compiled a ranking of Kazakhstan’s most actively developing e-commerce companies, with all seven e-commerce businesses within the Freedom Holding Corp. ecosystem making the list. Together, they cover online grocery retail, travel, entertainment, food delivery, household services, electronics, and automotive products.

Arbuz.kz

Arbuz.kz specializes in online grocery sales and delivery. The service operates in Almaty, Astana, Karaganda, and Shymkent and is gradually expanding its model beyond Kazakhstan’s two largest cities.

From January through June 2026, gross merchandise value (GMV) generated through the platform increased by 114% year over year. The number of orders rose 2.3-fold, the number of new customers increased 2.5-fold, and the active customer base doubled.

By June, Arbuz.kz had reached 260,000 monthly active users and 24,000 daily active users. Seventh-month customer retention stood at 30.4%, while 91% of payments were processed through Freedom payment instruments. The share of customers coming from Freedom SuperApp rose from 39% in July 2025 to 91% in June 2026.

Freedom Travel

Freedom Travel is a service for purchasing airline and railway tickets and booking travel services. It previously operated under the Aviata brand before rebranding in April 2025.

In 2025, the airline ticketing service had 476,000 monthly active users, while the railway ticketing service had 344,000. Freedom Travel connected more than 1,000 airline content providers and developed its own ticket search and booking algorithm, which helps improve price competitiveness by 20%.

By June 2026, the service’s total monthly audience reached 771,000 users, while daily active users reached 70,000. Total GMV increased by 142% year over year. Over the course of the year, the company attracted more than 500,000 new customers, 2.5 times more than a year earlier. In the first quarter of 2026, one in five domestic airline tickets in Kazakhstan was purchased through Freedom Travel.

The company has also entered the European market, launched an aggregator offering 3 million accommodation options, and announced plans to offer package tours and visa assistance. Freedom Business Travel introduced an AI agent for organizing corporate travel through Telegram and Slack. It operates in Kazakh and Russian and can generate travel options in under two minutes.

Freedom Ticketon

Freedom Ticketon is an online ticketing service for cultural, sporting, and business events. The project was launched in 2012 and became part of Freedom Holding Corp. in 2022.

The service covers more than 1,000 venues in over 50 cities across Kazakhstan and sold tickets to more than 9,000 events over the course of a year. In 2025–2026, the platform offered tickets to concerts by international performers and major festivals, including a Kanye West concert and the Park Live festival in Almaty featuring Gorillaz.

From January through June 2026, Freedom Ticketon’s GMV increased by 20% year over year, while the number of transactions also rose by 20%. Turnover over the previous 12 months increased by more than 60%. Monthly active users reached 345,000, while daily active users stood at 24,000. The share of customers coming from Freedom SuperApp rose from 21% to 66%, and in March more than 60% of transactions were generated through ecosystem channels.

Chocofood

Chocofood has operated in the restaurant food delivery market since 2013. In 2026, the service was integrated into the Freedom Holding Corp. ecosystem, while its team and technology platform became the foundation for the launch of Freedom Food.

The new business began its expansion in Kazakhstan’s regions, with Aktau becoming its first city of operation. This reflects a broader market trend: the gap between Almaty, Astana, and regional cities is narrowing as product selection expands and delivery quality improves in regional centers.

Freedom Drive

Freedom Drive is a specialized online retailer of automotive products and related services operating across Kazakhstan. The company ranked 33rd on the list. Freedom Drive’s 2025 revenue totaled $14 million, down 13.72%. Average monthly website traffic reached 81,175 users.

In August 2025, the company introduced its own tire brand designed for Kazakhstan’s extreme climate conditions. Winter models, manufactured in Guangzhou and certified in the Netherlands, were the first to enter the market. In early 2026, the first shipment of summer tires arrived in Kazakhstan, comprising seven models.

Freedom Mobile

Freedom Mobile sells smartphones, accessories, and related services through its online store and a network of 84 retail outlets in 28 cities across Kazakhstan. The retailer is integrated into Freedom SuperApp.

In summer 2026, the company partnered with Kazakhstan’s state device registration system to launch a free IMEI verification service allowing customers to check a smartphone’s registration status before purchase. Freedom Mobile also began offering customers the option to exchange unofficially imported devices for verified smartphones.

Naimi.kz

Naimi.kz is a household services marketplace where users can find professionals for repairs, cleaning, transportation, construction, education, beauty services, and other everyday needs.

In 2025, the service joined the Freedom ecosystem and launched a mini-app within Freedom SuperApp. In 2026, miniapp 2.0 was introduced, transforming the service into a full-scale end-to-end services marketplace for customers and professionals across Kazakhstan.

The Ecosystem Is Developing Its Businesses in Parallel

Arbuz.kz, Freedom Travel, and Freedom Ticketon are consolidated under the Freedom Lifestyle business line. In summer 2026, Freedom Lifestyle.kz was registered at the Astana International Financial Centre.

Timur Turlov, founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp., attributes the companies’ parallel development to strong management and the independence of individual teams.

“We are strengthening our corporate governance and risk management while carefully working to improve the efficiency of our economic model across all 24 jurisdictions where we currently operate. Thanks to the strong and highly capable teams leading each business, all of our companies are now able to develop in parallel at a high level,” Turlov said.