A Busy September For Freedom Holding Corp.

Freedom Holding Corp. saw significant activity across its businesses in September. Freedom Holding strengthened its performance across its financial businesses, increased its SuperApp user base, expanded activity in digital payments and online commerce, and laid the groundwork to move into mobile services.

Against this backdrop, Freedom's shares on NASDAQ significantly outperformed its fintech peers.

Ratings on the Rise

September started on a positive note for Freedom Holding Corp. S&P Global Ratings revised the outlook on the long-term credit ratings of Freedom Holding Corp. and four core operating subsidiaries to positive from stable.

In addition to Freedom Holding Corp., the outlook revision covered Freedom Finance JSC, Freedom Finance Europe Ltd., Freedom Finance Global PLC, and Freedom Bank Kazakhstan JSC.

The international ratings of these four companies were reaffirmed at BB- level. At the same time, Moody's Ratings assigned first-time insurance financial strength ratings to two of the group's insurance companies.

Freedom Finance Insurance received a Ba1 rating, while Freedom Life got Baa3, both with stable outlooks. The Baa3 rating made Freedom Life the first company within the group to receive an investment-grade rating from Moody's.

S&P attributed the positive outlook to Freedom's continued development of group-wide risk management and consolidated compliance functions, as well as stronger controls at both the group and subsidiary levels. It should help to control risks as the business grows.

S&P's assessment also reflected a more favourable view of Kazakhstan's economic environment. For the two insurance companies, Moody's pointed to their market positions, asset quality, conservative investment strategies and capital adequacy.

S&P's and Moody's actions point to strengthening fundamentals across Freedom's businesses.

One App, Millions of Users

Freedom Holding's expansion is also reflected in its growing customer base.

In September the number of registered users of SuperApp, which brings together the holding's multiple services in one platform, reached 6 million, up from 5.18 million at the end of fiscal year 2026, which ended 31 March. At the end of June 2024, two months after its launch, SuperApp had just 204,000 customers.

Users are relatively evenly distributed by gender, with men accounting for 45% and women 55%, and across age groups. Customers over 50 account for 11%, those aged 36 to 50 for 27%, 25 to 35 for 25%, and 18 to 24 for 20%. A dedicated offering for children contributes to the 17% share of users aged 6 to 17.

The growth of the customer base is supported by the wide range of services available through Freedom SuperApp. They include not only investment and banking products, but also insurance, travel, event tickets, online shopping, government services, media, telecommunications, etc.

Cards Go Digital

The convenience of accessing multiple services through a single app has made Freedom's digital infrastructure part of customers' everyday transactions. In September, Freedom Holding CEO and founder Timur Turlov said Freedom Bank ranked first among banks in Kazakhstan by the share of transactions made through Apple Pay, Google Pay and other digital wallets.

According to Turlov, Freedom Bank has the highest share of tokenised cards in Kazakhstan. The percentage of adult cardholders using tokenised cards increased from 18% to 26.3% year to date. That means roughly one in four of the bank's cards is now linked to a digital wallet.

Customers are not only adding their cards to digital wallets but increasingly using them for everyday payments. From January through August 2026, the number of transactions by Freedom customers through mobile wallets was already 40% higher than the full-year 2025 total.

Ecosystem Meets Revenue

User activity is also reflected in the financial performance of key businesses within Freedom Holding. In September, six companies of the group made Forbes Kazakhstan's ranking of the country's 50 largest online marketplaces, based on full-year 2025 online sales revenue.

Freedom Travel was the standout, ranking No. 4 overall with $292 million in revenue, up 60.38% year over year. Ticketing platform Freedom Ticketon ranked No. 15, with $65.9 million in revenue, up 20.36% year over year. Online supermarket Arbuz.kz ranked No. 18, reporting $50 million in revenue, up 77.8%.

Freedom Drive, a specialised retailer of auto parts and driver services, ranked No. 33 with $14 million in revenue. Smartphone and accessories retailer Freedom Mobile took No. 38, with $6.2 million in revenue, up 18.83% from 2024.

Naimi, a marketplace connecting users with specialists for repairs, cleaning, moving and other everyday services, landed at No. 45, with $1.6 million in sales, up 43.28% year over year.

Mobile on the Horizon

Freedom Holding Corp. is also continuing to expand the number of businesses within its ecosystem. In September, Freedom Telecom announced plans to launch a mobile operator to complement its existing connectivity services, which already include fixed-line internet, Wi-Fi and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA).

The FWA network, already operating in Shymkent, Aktau, Taraz, Turkistan and Konaev, with deployment underway in Astana and Almaty, could become the foundation for a future mobile network. The base stations used for FWA already provide radio coverage.

Once Freedom Telecom secures the necessary spectrum and licences, it could use the existing infrastructure as the basis for mobile services.

Building the mobile operator on top of an existing ecosystem of financial and everyday services could also give Freedom room to offer connectivity at lower prices, as customer acquisition costs are lower when subscribers are already part of the ecosystem.

Pulling Ahead

The market has also responded to Freedom's performance and plans to further develop its ecosystem. Freedom Holding Corp.'s stock, which trades on NASDAQ under the ticker FRHC, rose 34.7%, from $124.23 on 2 January to $167.30 on 30 September 2026. The market capitalization exceeded $10.7 billion as of 30 September.

Freedom Holding Corp. also outperformed other fintech players on Nasdaq. Over the same period, shares of digital financial platform SoFi Technologies fell 42.8%, from $27.46 to $15.72.

The stock price of Swedish buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) service Klarna lost 56.6%, declining from $28.57 to $12.39. PayPal decreased 9.6%, from $58.14 to $52.53, while AI-powered lending platform Upstart dropped 49.8% from $45.84 to $22.99. Brazilian neobank Nu Holdings was down 25.6%, from $17.02 to $12.66, and Affirm (also a BNPL player) declined 6.5%, from $74.03 to $69.23.

Another Kazakhstan fintech, Kaspi.kz, gained on Nasdaq, although less than Freedom. Its stock rose 21.3% over the same period, from $77.54 to $94.06.

About the Contributor: Daniel Harper is a Senior Market Analyst specialising in cross-border capital flows and fintech ecosystems. With over 12 years of experience in equity research and macro strategy, he focuses on emerging markets and technology-driven financial expansion.