Brands
E-com: Godrej Interio, IBM tie up
MUMBAI: IBM has announced that Godrej Interio, the furniture division of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd., is collaborating with IBM to capture the attention of the growing number of home furniture and accessories consumers. Godrej Interio, India’s largest furniture brand, has selected IBM Commerce and IBM Design Thinking-led engagement to further augment customer engagement and experience across all of its 3 brands (Godrej Interio, U&Us and a new lifestyle home furniture brand) and increase brand loyalty by delivering a seamless personalized shopping experience across store, mobile and social channels.
Godrej Interio has more than 50 exclusive furniture showrooms in top 20 cities and more than 800 dealer outlets across India. With the increase of urban buyers and rising disposable income in India, a growing number of consumers are spending more on their homes, specifically on furniture, furnishings, and décor. With this increase in spends, there is also the pressure to meet rising consumer demand for a seamless shopping experience, from store to mobile and digital channels. Godrej needed a well-integrated omni-channel commerce solution to help innovate the way they engage with each consumer, but also respond quickly to the latest trends and customer demands.
“We needed the right combination of design and technology capabilities to provide us with the insights to turn our existing and potential customers into loyal brand advocates,” said Godrej Interio Head – Ecommerce and Digital Transformation Shanu Singh. “We believe design thinking is an innovative strategy and the most effective way to create a customer centric business model. With IBM’s global expertise and local experience in the omni-channel commerce and retail space, we are confident this will give us the edge over competition.”
IBM’s design-based consulting and e-commerce capabilities will enable Godrej Interio to gain deeper customer insights by evaluating customers’ observations, ideas, and insights by their browsing behavior online and offline. Godrej Interio will use these insights to recommend home decor ideas.
“In this fiercely competitive home decor market, retailers need to keep pace by adapting to new business models that help innovate and deliver unique customer experiences,” said IBM ISA managing partner GBS Lula Mohanty. “With IBM Commerce, Godrej Interio now has the insights to help guide and redefine how they meet the unique needs of each customer.”
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.
