Ahmet Faruk Karslı

Ahmet Faruk Karslı was born in Germany in 1989 to an academic family. He attended St. Avusturya Koleji Lisesi in Istanbul, then graduated from Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Law and completed a master’s degree at Istanbul University Faculty of Law. From 2007 onward, he worked in legal and technology roles across multiple companies.

In 2015, Karslı founded Papara, a digital wallet and neobank that became Turkey’s largest independent fintech platform. The company obtained an electronic money license in 2016, joined Visa’s global partner network in 2019, and was twice named to the KPMG Global FinTech 100 list. Under his leadership, Papara grew to serve more than 23 million individual users and 14,000 merchants.

Karslı served as Papara’s CEO from 2020 to 2022, then resumed the role in February 2025. In May 2025, a major investigation accused Papara of processing transactions for illegal betting operations. Karslı was arrested, released on 7 July 2025, and re-arrested shortly after when prosecutors successfully appealed. The indictment alleges that 26,012 Papara accounts were used for illegal betting between 2021 and 2023, processing approximately 12 billion Turkish lira. Karslı and Papara deny all wrongdoing. As of October 2025, the Central Bank of Turkey has revoked Papara’s operating license, and the case remains before the courts.