Brands
Amar Kondekar powers brand growth at Jio Creative Labs
MUMBAI: Amar Kondekar has quietly but decisively put his stamp on Jio Creative Labs. One year into his role as head of brand services and business growth, he has emerged as a steady force behind the company’s growing reputation as a modern creative powerhouse built for scale, speed and consistency.
Over the past 12 months, Kondekar has focused on something often overlooked in creative businesses: systems. His work centres on aligning creativity, content, production and delivery into integrated frameworks that can move fast without losing soul. The result is a smoother engine powering an increasingly complex brand and content ecosystem.
At Jio Creative Labs, Kondekar has overseen a wide mix of mandates, from Reliance Consumer Products to cultural platforms such as Nmacc, alongside global and domestic brands including Invisalign, Muthoot Finance and Radio City. His remit also spans key government initiatives. In total, he manages work across more than 40 categories, covering everything from FMCG and fashion to healthcare, financial services and public-sector communication.
A defining feature of his leadership has been the thoughtful integration of AI into creative and operational workflows. From planning and execution to quality control and optimisation, these AI-led systems are designed not to replace creativity, but to sharpen it. The aim is simple: better efficiency, stronger predictability and performance at scale, without dulling human imagination.
Before joining Jio Creative Labs, Kondekar was closely associated with content-led marketing production at Netflix. There, he contributed to campaigns for global hits such as Stranger Things, Money Heist and Extraction, as well as Indian originals including Heeramandi and The Great Indian Kapil Sharma Show. His focus was on building storytelling frameworks that connected culture, fandom and audience growth.
Earlier in his career, he led integrated brand mandates across sectors, working with brands such as JSW Steel, Hershey’s, Park Avenue, Everyuth and Bajaj Electricals. These experiences helped shape his grounding in mass-scale brand strategy and execution.
Beyond boardrooms and brand plans, Kondekar is deeply invested in people. He mentors interns, is involved in building Sole, a School of Learning and Experience, and brings his credentials as a certified NLP executive coach, yoga instructor and triathlete into a leadership style rooted in balance and performance.
As Jio Creative Labs continues to evolve at the crossroads of creativity, content, AI and commerce, Kondekar’s approach stands out for its long view. Less flash, more foundation and a belief that the best ideas travel further when backed by the right systems.
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
