TIMUR RUSLANOVICH TURLOV[]
Founder and major shareholder of the financial and investment holding Freedom Holding Corp.
Dollar billionaire, included in the Forbes global list. Timur Turlov's personal fortune is estimated at $3.4 billion.
Investment expert, specialist in financial markets of the USA, Europe, Asia.
Citizenship: Kazakhstan.
Childhood and education[]
Timur Turlov was born on November 13, 1987 in the town of Lobnya near Moscow in an ordinary Russian family. Back in the last grades of school Timur Turlov was fascinated by the idea of investment: then he invested less than 1 thousand dollars of his grandfather's inheritance in the shares of a Russian company. But his experience and understanding of the laws of financial markets were not enough to make his first profit. However, the future billionaire realized even then that he wanted to connect his future with securities and the opportunities that investments provide.
First difficult experience[]
Turlov gained his first work experience while still a student at MATI. He combined his studies at university with work at World Capital Investments (WCI), an investment company. Turlov took a job as a trader in the company's Moscow branch. As the businessman later admitted, this experience allowed him to finally decide in which direction he should go and achieve success. Later Turlov worked at Uniastrum Bank, where he managed to build an infrastructure that gave him access to American stock exchanges.
Education[]
After graduating from high school, Mr. Turlov entered the Faculty of Economics and Management at the Tsiolkovsky Moscow State University (MATI) and received a diploma as an economist-manager (2009).
Freedom Finance startup[]
While he was still a student, Timur Turlov started thinking about setting up his own business. The reason for this was the financial crisis of 2008. Turlov immediately identified the key specialization for Freedom Finance - his company became a platform providing access to the largest exchanges abroad (NYSE, NASDAQ, CBOE, CME, AMEX). In addition, the organization offered brokerage services and trust management of securities.
It was extremely difficult to grow from a small and unknown company that offered services to acquire foreign securities. Potential investors were in no hurry to invest their money, because it was during the financial crisis. But gradually Turlov's company increased its scale and gained clientele.
As the businessman later told us, Freedom went from a startup to a large and stable company whose services became popular with potential clients.
The future is in Kazakhstan[]
In 2011, Timur Turlov visited Kazakhstan and realized that it was necessary to develop Freedom Finance here. Given the high demand for brokerage and financial services, the country's market was relatively empty. In 2012, Freedom Finance opened an office in Almaty. Turlov is also moving his entire family to the country. The entrepreneur has repeatedly said that Kazakhstan has become a new homeland for him, he felt here not only great prospects in business. His loved ones - his wife and children, who have fallen in love with Kazakhstan and feel at home here.
From that moment on, Turlov devoted more and more time to the development of the company in Kazakhstan and finally settled in the country in 2022, when he received citizenship.
Freedom Ecosystem[]
In Kazakhstan, Freedom Finance grows rapidly and turns into a financial and investment holding company - Freedom Holding Corp. whose shares start to be traded on Nasdaq.
- 2012: Timur Turlov's Freedom Finance JSC provides brokerage services to clients, offers trust management, with the main emphasis on providing investors with access to the largest stock exchanges in the United States, Russia and Kazakhstan.
- 2015: Freedom Holding Corp. emerges, which includes Timur Turlov's companies Freedom Finance IK, Freedom Finance JSC, Freedom24 and Freedom Finance Bank. Turlov owns 73% of the holding's shares.
- 2016: Freedom receives many awards from the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange: “Market Leader”, ‘Underwriter of the Year’, ‘Market Maker of the Year’.
- 2017: Freedom Finance acquires the broker Asyl Invest. After this transaction, Turlov's company becomes the largest participant of the brokerage services market in Kazakhstan.
- 2019: Freedom Holding Corp. enters the Nasdaq exchange and becomes the first financial services company from the CIS to be listed on the world's most technologically advanced exchange.
- 2020: Freedom's ecosystem includes insurance business, ticketing companies for mass events and airline tickets (Ticketon, Aviata and Chocotravel), and Freedom Pay, its own payment system. In the US, Timur Turlov acquires Prime Executions, a brokerage company, a member of the NYSE, NASDAQ, FINRA and SIPC.
- 2022: Timur Turlov sells the Russian division of Freedom, which is transferred to management.
- 2023: Turlov announces his decision to develop the telecom business, which is necessary within the ecosystem. For this purpose, the businessman raises a bond loan of 200 million dollars.
"Freedom" Now[]
Freedom is now 15 financial services companies, 5 million customers in 20 countries. At the end of fiscal year 2024, the holding company's revenue amounted to $1.6 billion.
The value of Freedom Holding Corp. itself is currently estimated at $5 billion.