Seven years on Nasdaq: how Freedom Holding Corp built an international growth story

Seven years after its US stock market debut, Freedom Holding Corp has grown far beyond its brokerage roots. What began as a single-market trading business now spans banking, insurance, telecommunications and consumer technology. FRHC shares, which started trading on Nasdaq at $14.40 on October 15, 2019, have climbed to $176.14, pushing the company’s market capitalisation above $11.2 billion.

The Nasdaq Capital Market listing itself was a milestone before the growth even began. Announced in October 2019, it made Freedom Holding Corp the first financial company from Kazakhstan to enter a US stock exchange. For founder and CEO Timur Turlov , the move was never about raising cash. “The company and its principal shareholders did not need additional funding at the time,” Turlov explained. The real objective was broader: improving access to investors and building demand for the stock among a new international audience.

That early positioning paid off. In 2025, FRHC shares entered the Russell 3000 Index, the First Trust Financial AlphaDEX ETF and The Motley Fool’s Moneyball portfolio, extending the company’s reach into mainstream US investment products.

The numbers tell their own story of transformation. For the financial year ended March 31, 2026, Freedom Holding Corp reported revenue of $2.19 billion, up from $2.00 billion the year before, while net income more than doubled to $153.3 million from $76.2 million.

Look closer at the revenue mix and a shifting business emerges. Interest income reached $882.5 million, and net revenue from insurance activities came in at $402.4 million, down 29% year on year as regulatory changes in Kazakhstan affected insurance commissions. But revenue from goods and services told the opposite story, climbing 143% to $97.4 million as the group pushed into telecommunications and e-commerce.

Customer growth reinforces the same trend. Banking customers nearly doubled during fiscal 2026, rising from 2.52 million to 5.03 million, while brokerage customers grew from 683,000 to 858,000. The insurance business, meanwhile, served approximately 1.1 million customers.

Momentum has continued into the new financial year. In the first quarter of fiscal 2027, ended June 30, 2026, revenue rose by approximately 40% year on year to $732.5 million, with net income of $31.7 million and total assets reaching close to $14 billion.

If the numbers show how the business is changing, the acquisitions show where. International expansion has become a defining feature of Freedom Holding Corp’s strategy, and Turkey is a clear example. The company agreed to acquire 99.32% of Turkish Bank A.Ş., completing the transaction on July 31, 2026 and renaming the lender Freedom Bank A.Ş. The deal gives the group a local banking platform from which to build further financial and digital services.

Europe is the next priority. In June, the company applied for a banking license in France, outlining plans to invest €500 million over five years in a digital bank and the infrastructure to support it.

The group has also looked beyond traditional financial services entirely. In April, it acquired ChessBase, a German developer of chess software and databases, earmarking approximately €5 million for its development. In August, Freedom became the principal shareholder of Bilim Group, a Central Asian education technology company with a daily audience of around one million users.

Behind the acquisitions sits a broader ambition: linking all of these different businesses through a single digital environment. In June 2026, Freedom Holding Corp introduced a rebranding initiative designed to unite its operations under the Freedom name.

Its SuperApp is the clearest expression of that ambition, combining banking and payments with insurance, travel, ticketing and other consumer services. Freedom Travel has launched a hotel-booking aggregator covering three million properties, and the group is also developing an AI assistant that could let customers complete tasks through natural-language requests.

Scale brings its own challenges, however. Acquisitions, licensing requirements and a growing list of operating markets make integration an increasingly important part of the story. In September, S&P Global Ratings revised its outlooks on the holding company and four key subsidiaries from stable to positive, citing progress in risk management and compliance.

As of October 2026, Freedom Holding Corp operated in 24 countries and employed more than 12,100 people. Its next stage of growth will depend not just on entering new markets, but on how effectively it brings its financial, technology and consumer businesses together into one coherent international ecosystem.