Veon Ltd., based in Dubai, is leaning into finance in Kazakhstan, its third-biggest market by revenue under the Beeline brand. CEO Kaan Terzioglu said the company intends to introduce a digital bank in the country by the end of next year as part of a broader push into digital services.
Beeline Kazakhstan said on Friday it finalized the acquisition of OLX KZ for $81 million after receiving required approvals. The classifieds platform sees roughly 9 million people use it each month, giving Veon a sizable marketplace to plug into its fintech ambitions.
"I would like to be number one or number two in financial services," Terzioglu said, without putting a date on that goal. He also called out the fit with OLX, saying, "OLX is a critical addition to our capability."
Local competition has been intensifying as banks stitch together ecosystems that go beyond straight lending. In a nation of roughly 21 million people, Kaspi.kz's superapp counts over 16 million monthly active users, underscoring the size of the competition Veon faces.
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In October 2025, Veon reached a deal to acquire OLX Group's online classifieds operation in Kazakhstan to challenge competitors such as Kaspi.kz and Yandex's ride-hailing services. The company plans to upgrade its licenses so it can accept deposits, Terzioglu said. Based on its latest filings, around 18% of Veon's total revenue originates in Kazakhstan, while approximately 66% comes from Pakistan and Ukraine.
Veon aims to replicate in Kazakhstan the digital ecosystem it built in Ukraine, which spans services from ride-hailing to tools that help users find medicines. Terzioglu said the company aims to leverage OLX to roll out that approach in the local market.
In September, Veon entered into a five-year memorandum with the National Bank of Kazakhstan to examine digital payment services and how they can connect with national infrastructure. The company also plans to keep investing in Ukraine in energy and data centers, following its Kyivstar unit's announcement of the planned purchase of cloud-infrastructure provider GigaCloud.
If Veon can layer payments, banking, and commerce around OLX KZ's traffic, it could carve out share in a market where superapps already have deep reach. Markers to watch: progress on deposit-taking licenses, the digital bank launch by the end of next year, and early readouts on user growth and payment volumes. The bottom line: execution in Kazakhstan and continued ecosystem expansion in Ukraine will signal how much Veon can stretch beyond connectivity into higher-margin digital services.
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