Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz: history, ownership, mission, how it works & makes money

From a 2002 bank takeover by Vyacheslav Kim to a cross-border fintech powerhouse, Kaspi.kz's rise is measured in concrete milestones and numbers: founded when Kim bought the privatized Caspian Bank, backed by Baring Vostok in 2006 and reshaped under Mikheil Lomtadze from 2007 onward, the group rebranded to Kaspi Bank in 2008 and to Kaspi.kz in 2018, and today key insiders and investors steer strategy with ownership stakes of 23.35% (Vyacheslav Kim), 24.55% (Mikheil Lomtadze) and 28.8% (Baring Vostok), while public investors and management hold the remainder; its mission to simplify everyday finance powers a two-sided Super App serving 14 million monthly active users and 581,000 merchant partners (9.1 million daily active users in 2023), and its capex-lite Payments, Marketplace and Fintech platforms convert engagement into scale-Q3 2025 metrics underscore that strategy with Total Payment Volume of KZT11,615 billion, Marketplace revenue of KZT222 billion (+24% YoY) and Fintech TFV of KZT3,049 billion (Fintech revenue KZT410 billion, +24% YoY)-a performance that helped sustain a market capitalization north of $20 billion in 2023, fuel expansion like the January 2025 acquisition of a 65.41% stake in Hepsiburada and plans to invest about $300 million into Turkish fintech in 2025 while targeting ~15% consolidated net income growth for 2025 (ex-Türkiye).

Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz (KSPI): Intro

• Founded from the privatized Caspian Bank acquisition by Vyacheslav Kim in 2002.
• Baring Vostok Capital Partners investment in 2006 accelerated its fintech transition.
• Mikheil Lomtadze joined in 2007 and co-led the product- and technology-driven transformation.
• Rebranded from JSC Caspian Bank to JSC Kaspi Bank on 15 November 2008.
• Authorized as an indirect bank holding company (Kaspi.kz) in 2015 to broaden financial services.
• Renamed Kaspi Joint Stock Company to Kaspi.kz on 2 April 2018 to reflect diversified digital services.

Key historical milestones and timeline

Ownership and leadership

• Founder/major shareholder: Vyacheslav Kim - central figure since 2002, principal owner through holding structures.
• Executive leadership: Mikheil Lomtadze (joined 2007) - CEO and co-architect of the fintech platform strategy.
• Institutional investors: early private equity (Baring Vostok) and public investors since the 2020 London listing.

What Kaspi.kz offers - core products and ecosystem logic

• Kaspi Pay / Payments: QR and card payments, P2P transfers and merchant acquiring integrated in the app.
• Kaspi Bank: Deposit, card and consumer lending products leveraging digital origination and underwriting.
• Kaspi Market: Marketplace and e‑commerce enabling merchants and consumer purchases, with logistics integrations.
• Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) and point‑of‑sale consumer loans: high-frequency, small-ticket credit embedded at checkout.
• Value-added services: insurance, loyalty and targeted financial products driven by transaction data.

How Kaspi.kz makes money - business model and revenue drivers

• Interchange and merchant fees from payments and acquiring.
• Net interest income and fees from consumer loans, BNPL and card lending.
• Commissions and take-rates from marketplace transactions and merchant services.
• Service fees from deposits, corporate banking services and value-added products (insurance, transfers).
• Data-driven cross‑sell: using transactional insights to improve loan origination, reduce risk and increase wallet share.

Selected operating and financial metrics (representative high-level figures)

Unit economics and monetization dynamics

• High-frequency transactions (payments and transfers) generate steady fee and interchange revenue while feeding underwriting data for credit products.
• Embedded BNPL and point‑of‑sale credit increase average basket sizes and generate interest/fee income with relatively high turnover.
• Marketplace take‑rates and merchant services are scalable: more GMV on Kaspi Market increases commission income without proportionate fixed-cost increases.
• Deposit funding and cross-sell reduce funding costs for consumer lending, expanding net interest margin.

Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz (KSPI): History

• Founded: 2003
• Core businesses: retail banking, payments, marketplace, fintech services, logistics
• ADRs listed on NASDAQ: January 2024

• Omni-platform strategy: integrated banking + marketplace + payments to capture cross‑sell and high customer engagement.
• Revenue streams:
  • Net interest income from consumer loans and deposits.
  • Commissions and fees from payments, merchant services and marketplace transactions.
  • Value‑added services: advertising, logistics and financial products (insurance, instalments).
• Customer base growth leverages network effects: payments volume drives merchant listings and loan origination.

Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz (KSPI): Ownership Structure

• Mission and values: improve lives by developing innovative mobile products and services, prioritizing convenience, trust, and deep customer engagement.
• Two-sided Super App model: consumer-facing Kaspi.kz Super App and merchant-facing Kaspi Pay Super App.
• Core verticals: Payments, Marketplace (e‑commerce), and Fintech (loans, deposits, wealth products).

• Scale and engagement (2023): 14,000,000 monthly active users (MAU).
• Daily engagement (2023): 9,100,000 daily active users (DAU).
• Merchant network (2023): 581,000 merchant partners across Kazakhstan.
• Recognition: featured in Harvard Business School case studies for its platform strategy and competitive moat.

• How it makes money:
  • Transaction fees and merchant acquiring via Kaspi Pay.
  • Interest and fees from consumer financing and loans.
  • Commissions and fulfillment-related revenue from Marketplace sales.
  • Value‑added services (insurance, deposits, fintech products).

Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz (KSPI): Mission and Values

• Two-sided Super App model: Kaspi.kz operates integrated, complementary platforms that serve both consumers (Kaspi Consumer Super App) and merchants (Kaspi Pay Super App), creating network effects between user bases.
• Consumer services: the Kaspi.kz Super App combines digital payments, a marketplace, point-of-sale lending ("Buy Now, Pay Later"), deposits, transfers and personal finance tools to drive daily engagement.
• Merchant services: Kaspi Pay Super App provides digital acquiring, invoicing, terminal solutions and deferred payment acceptance, improving payment acceptance and conversion for merchants.
• Proprietary payments network: Kaspi runs an in-house payments processing stack that routes card and wallet flows, enabling faster settlement, lower fees and data capture for risk and personalization.
• Relevance and engagement: product design focuses on everyday relevance (bill pay, grocery, ride-hailing partners, loyalty), increasing frequency of interaction and customer stickiness.
• Capex-lite strategy: Kaspi emphasizes software, partnerships and platform leverage over heavy physical infrastructure, enabling rapid top-line scaling while containing fixed costs.

• Revenue streams:
  • Transaction and service fees from payments and acquiring.
  • Commissions and margins on marketplace sales and logistics services.
  • Interest and fees from consumer credit products (installment loans, BNPL).
  • Financial services income: deposits, FX spreads, and insurance partnerships.
  • Value-added services to merchants (analytics, advertising, loyalty programs).
• Two-sided pricing: consumers often benefit from low-cost or subsidized front-end features while merchants and financial products capture the monetization points.
• Data & personalization: proprietary transaction data reduces underwriting costs for lending and improves cross-sell efficiency, lifting lifetime value per user.

• High-frequency engagement (payments, transfers, bill pay) drives repeated exposure to marketplace and loan offers, increasing cross-sell conversion.
• Low customer acquisition cost per product: once a user is active in the app, incremental products (loans, deposits, marketplace) are sold with relatively low variable marketing spend.
• Underwriting advantage from payment and transaction history reduces credit losses and allows profitable consumer lending at scale.
• Acquiring margins and merchant fees generate predictable recurring revenue with limited capex-terminals and POS integrations are often provided via partnerships.

• Network moat: combined consumer and merchant flows create switching friction; competitors must replicate multiple integrated services to match value.
• Regulatory and macro sensitivity: consumer lending volumes and credit performance can fluctuate with economic cycles and regulatory constraints.
• Technology and fraud risk: payments and lending businesses require constant investment in fraud controls and platform reliability.

Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz (KSPI): How It Works

• Payments Platform - core transaction rails used for card, QR, peer‑to‑peer and merchant payments.
• Marketplace - e‑commerce storefront connecting buyers and sellers, supplemented by logistics and advertising.
• Fintech Platform - consumer lending, merchant financing, deposits and other financial products delivered via the app.

• Payments Platform: earns primarily from transaction fees, merchant acquiring margins, and value‑added payment services. Total Payment Volume (TPV) reached KZT 11,615 billion in Q3 2025, underpinning fee income proportional to TPV.
• Marketplace: monetizes via product listing fees, take‑rates on sales, advertising, promotions, and value‑added services such as Kaspi Delivery and seller tools. Marketplace revenue was KZT 222 billion in Q3 2025 (24% year‑over‑year growth).
• Fintech Platform: generates interest income, origination and servicing fees from loans, and deposit spreads. Total Finance Value (TFV) stood at KZT 3,049 billion in Q3 2025; Fintech revenue was KZT 410 billion in Q3 2025 (24% YoY growth).

• Single‑app ecosystem: payments drive marketplace conversion; marketplace and BNPL increase loan originations; deposits provide low‑cost funding.
• Network effects: large active user base increases TPV and marketplace GMV, amplifying ad and listing monetization.
• Operational scale: logistics (Kaspi Delivery) and merchant services raise take‑rates and reduce unit costs.

• Transaction fees scale with TPV and merchant penetration.
• Marketplace take‑rates and advertising rise with GMV and seller uptake of premium services.
• Interest and fee income scale with TFV and loan book quality; deposit balances lower funding costs.

Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz (KSPI): How It Makes Money

• Core revenue streams: transaction and merchant fees, net interest income from consumer loans, marketplace commissions, payment processing and advertising.
• Customer engagement: super-app model (wallet, marketplace, buy-now-pay-later, P2P transfers) increases lifetime value and lowers acquisition costs.
• Synergies: data-driven underwriting and targeted offers improve margins and reduce defaults.

• Türkiye strategy: acquisition of 65.41% of Hepsiburada (Jan 2025) plus $300M planned fintech investment to replicate Kaspi's payments + marketplace model in a large e‑commerce market.
• Geographic expansion: targeting Central Asia and the Caucasus leveraging platform play and cross-border product portability.
• Risk/mitigant: expects continued organic net income growth (~15% in 2025 ex-Türkiye) despite macro uncertainties due to diversified revenue mix and strong market share in Kazakhstan.