Brands
Media personality Pranav Harihar Sharma joins Pippip Media as showrunner & partner
Mumbai: New age content house Pippip Media has announced the onboarding of Cannes Lions winning filmmaker and ad-man Pranav Harihar Sharma as partner and showrunner of the company.
With close to two decades of noticeable work in the advertising industry, Sharma will now lead Pippip’s foray into long format storytelling and branded campaigns. With over two hundred ad films under his belt as director, and having won multiple awards for his short films at several international festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival, New York Film Fest to name a few, Sharma feels this is the right time to get into new-age storytelling.
Speaking on his association with Pippip Media, he says, “The world is fast moving from advertising to media & entertainment and in no time we will see branded content replacing the good old TVC. The change is already here and at Pippip, we want to be at the forefront of this change.”
“I’ve been working closely with Pippip on various projects last year. While working together we realised that we share the same vision and passion for creating cutting edge content. As Showrunner, I may not be writing or directing every content piece hereon but will be responsible for the final creative product,” Sharma added.
Director and chief business officer Joy Bhattacharya said, “We are delighted to announce the inclusion of Pranav as Showrunner and Partner. We believe he will play an instrumental role in building Pippip Media and accelerating the growth further.”
Pippip Media director and chief creative officer Aritra Mukherjee said, “The time is here to toggle between films, TVCs, digital content, branded campaigns, web series and not be limited to any one particular medium. We want to be present where good content can be created and no one better than Pranav to lead this vertical for us.”
Pippip Media’s recent IPL focused campaign for Fantasy Akhada with Harsha Bhogle and Ali Fazal has been well received and their short film ‘The Table’ for Greenply has been officially selected for the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival. They have also produced the 18th season of the iconic show MTV Roadies, filmed in South Africa with actor Sonu Sood.
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.
