Why Mohnish Pabrai Is Betting on Kaspi.kz

Mohnish Pabrai, one of the world's best-known value investors, has taken a position in Kaspi.kz (NASDAQ: KSPI), Kazakhstan's dominant digital-finance and commerce platform.

At first glance, Kaspi may look like an unusual Pabrai investment: a fintech company in a relatively small emerging market. But look closer and the investment fits his philosophy remarkably well — a strong business, a powerful competitive moat, aligned management and potentially asymmetric risk-reward.

Smart Money Express Views: Following the Capital Trail

Kaspi is much more than a digital bank.

Its Kaspi.kz Super App brings payments, e-commerce, consumer finance, travel and other services together in one ecosystem. By 2025, the platform had around 15.7 million monthly active users, with highly frequent engagement.

The business benefits from a powerful network effect:

Users→Merchants→Payments→Data→Credit→More Users

That creates a difficult-to-replicate ecosystem in Kazakhstan.

And the financial numbers are compelling. In 2025, Kaspi generated approximately KZT 4.05 trillion in revenue, up about 60%. Its profitability remains substantial, while the business continues to generate cash and pay dividends.

What Could Be Exciting Pabrai?

Pabrai's investment philosophy is centred on finding situations where the downside is protected but the upside can be substantial.

Kaspi potentially offers exactly that.

1. A dominant domestic franchise

   Kaspi has built an extraordinarily integrated consumer ecosystem in Kazakhstan. Its users transact frequently across payments, shopping and financial services.

2. Multiple engines of growth

   Payments, marketplace and fintech are all sizeable businesses. Importantly, there is still room to increase the penetration of services among existing users.

3. Exceptional management alignment

   Founder and CEO Mikheil Lomtadze has a significant personal stake. His continued capital commitment is an important part of the investment story.

4. Turkey creates optionality

   Kaspi's expansion through Hepsiburada gives it exposure to the much larger Turkish e-commerce market. This remains an execution challenge, but if successful, it could materially expand Kaspi's long-term opportunity.

5. Tencent adds another layer of validation

   Tencent became a significant shareholder in 2026 alongside Lomtadze, senior management and long-term institutional investors. For investors, Tencent's involvement adds an interesting strategic dimension to Kaspi's digital ecosystem ambitions.

But There Is a Catch

This is not a risk-free compounder.

Kaspi remains heavily exposed to Kazakhstan, currency movements, consumer credit quality and regulatory changes. The Turkish expansion through Hepsiburada is still unproven and could consume significant capital before delivering attractive returns.

That is precisely why the Pabrai angle is interesting.

The question is not whether every part of Kaspi will work perfectly. The question is whether the core Kazakhstan franchise is valuable enough to provide downside protection, while Turkey and other opportunities create significant upside.

Smart Money Express Take

Kaspi.kz is not simply a Kazakhstan fintech stock. It is a dominant digital ecosystem being valued through an emerging-market lens.

That apparent gap between business quality, profitability and market perception may be the real reason Pabrai finds the company attractive.

For Smart Money Express readers, Kaspi is therefore worth watching not merely because Mohnish Pabrai bought it, but because it offers an intriguing case study in how a dominant emerging-market platform can create value through ecosystem economics, management alignment and international optionality.