Brands
Chinese Wok appoints Havas as integrated creative and media partner
Desi-Chinese chain bets on integrated creative and media muscle to power national expansion
MUMBAI: Chinese Wok is turning up the heat. India’s largest desi-Chinese qsr chain has appointed Havas Creative India and Arena Media as its integrated creative, social and digital media partner, sharpening its marketing firepower as it pushes past 260 outlets and eyes 500 stores across tier 1, 2 and 3 cities.
The mandate is sweeping. Havas Creative India and Arena Media, part of Havas Media Network India, will steer creative strategy, brand campaigns, social media, digital performance marketing and media planning and buying, orchestrating campaigns across atl, digital and in-store touchpoints. The brief: build a unified, platform-led brand system fit for national scale.
Founded in 2015 under Lenexis Foodworks, Chinese Wok has grown into the country’s largest Chinese qsr brand, with a footprint spanning more than 50 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Lucknow and Hyderabad. Now it wants more. Much more.
Aayush Madhusudan Agrawal, founder and director, Lenexis Foodworks, said the shift marks an investment in integrated brand building that matches the company’s growth ambitions. “As Chinese Wok scales nationally, we are investing in integrated brand building that matches our growth ambition. Havas will partner with us in shaping the next chapter of our journey, where creativity, culture and commerce work seamlessly together.”
The brand is doubling down on its youth-first positioning, amplifying cultural properties such as Wok FM and Crush Hour while building a broader content slate. The pivot away from campaign-led bursts to a continuous, platform-driven narrative signals a more systematised approach to brand equity.
Vikas Iyer, marketing head, Lenexis Foodworks, framed the move as essential to winning over Gen Z. “Chinese Wok has always been a culture-first brand, and as we deepen our connect with Gen Z, integration becomes critical. With Havas, we aim to create sharper campaigns, stronger digital ecosystems, and measurable impact, ensuring the brand stays relevant, visible, and performance-driven at scale”.
On the creative front, Anupama Ramaswamy, managing director and chief creative officer, Havas Creative India, described the brand as “pure fire, fast, flavourful and completely plugged into pop culture”. Her ambition: “to bottle that energy into a living brand platform that fuels everything, from big campaigns to cheeky social chatter to irresistible in-store experiences.” The goal, she added, is “stronger brand love, deeper youth obsession, and work that doesn’t just look good but moves business. More heat. More heart. More hunger”.
Uday Mohan, coo, Havas Media India and Havas Play, said integration is the real unlock. “By bringing together creative, media, and performance under one cohesive vision, we aim to build a brand ecosystem that is culturally sharp, digitally agile, and built for scale”.
Lenexis Foodworks also operates The Momo Co. and Big Bowl, but Chinese Wok remains its flagship and growth engine . As competition intensifies in India’s fast-food sector, scale alone is no longer enough. Cultural fluency, data-driven performance and seamless brand experiences are the new battleground.
Chinese Wok is betting that with Havas in its corner, it can serve up all three — fast, loud and at national scale.
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.
