The Freedom ecosystem has long since transcended the boundaries of traditional fintech. Today, the company is testing drone grocery delivery, investing in robotics, developing HealthTech and selling millions of airline and concert tickets. How can dozens of disparate services be combined into a single SuperApp? Why are delivery drones still more expensive than human couriers, even though they are the future? And how does the startup spirit survive within a huge corporation? Freedom Lifestyle Group CEO Alexey Lee spoke with Kursiv.media about hyper-personalization, the prime era of Kazakhstani events and the right to make mistakes.
— Alexey, the Freedom ecosystem unites completely different services from purchasing airline tickets to grocery delivery. What is the current structure of the Lifestyle block, and what links these projects together?
— Initially, the block was built around three flagships that became part of the holding company: Arbuz (renamed Freedom Products), Freedom Travel (formerly Aviata) and Freedom Ticketon. All are leaders and pioneers in their respective segments.
The block now includes several new divisions. This includes the Restaurants vertical — Freedom Food delivery, which will gradually scale across cities, and the Smart Restaurants operating system for restaurants, the new block Freedom Health (My Health), Freedom Auto (services for car owners), a number of new business lines that we will announce soon, as well as the Freedom X and AI Labs R&D labs.
All these projects share a common goal: creating modern digital products and services designed for millions of customers and capable of providing a high level of quality. The development of all these products is based on internet technologies, digitalization and the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
— Speaking of the overall goal, what fundamental tasks does the Lifestyle division solve for Freedom Holding?
— A year and a half ago, Freedom Holding CEO Timur Turlov helped us crystallize a strategy based on a simple idea: In today’s world, fintech leadership is impossible without a strong ecosystem, and no ecosystem can grow sustainably without a solid banking foundation. Since then, we have strived to be a reliable partner for our banking division and to work closely and effectively with it.
In my opinion, the key value of Lifestyle for the holding is our ability to strengthen the leadership of the fintech lifestyle ecosystem, increase FRHC’s overall appeal for investors.
A second important aspect is that the holding is undergoing a transition from a financial institution to a technology organization. During this process, the Lifestyle division often becomes the entry point for new startups, many of which come from the venture capital industry. Venture capital, in turn, allows us to test and implement new technologies with a level of risk appetite that is not typical for traditional financial instruments.
— How do you envision Freedom Lifestyle Group over the next 3 to 5 years?
— First of all, we plan to maintain and strengthen our leadership position in our current services, as we always prioritize the best customer experience. Second, we are focused on technological leadership: in the next 5 to 10 years, we expect rapid growth in AI, both in the digital and physical worlds, with so-called Physical AI. This trend will transform entire industries and we want to be part of it.
Overall, as a Lifestyle Group, we will strengthen our position as a center of expertise, a kind of “collective intelligence” for entrepreneurs who, by joining us, can avoid making common mistakes and start with an already-established competitive advantage.
This is a fascinating challenge — how to strike the right balance of decentralization to maintain entrepreneurial energy in each vertical while centralizing knowledge in engineering, data, marketing and other areas.
Read the full interview here.
