Brands
Naveen Prashanth joins JioStar as SVP of consumer marketing
Former Google and YouTube Shorts lead takes charge at new media giant
MUMBAI: JioStar has brought in a familiar digital heavyweight to steer its consumer story. Naveen Prashanth has been appointed SVP of consumer marketing at the newly formed media powerhouse, where he will lead strategic marketing initiatives across its portfolio.
Prashanth steps into the role after a high-impact five-year stint at Google. There, he led marketing for YouTube Shorts as well as creator and artist initiatives, helping the short-form platform scale engagement and deepen its connection with India’s fast-growing creator economy.
His work at Google focused on building strong ecosystems for creators and artists, turning short videos into a cultural mainstay rather than a passing trend. It is an experience that now travels with him to JioStar, a company looking to capture attention across screens and formats.
Before Google, Prashanth spent over five years at McKinsey & Company as senior engagement manager, advising businesses across sectors. Earlier in his career, he worked at Essex Lake Group as associate and at TCS e-Serve as analyst, building a foundation in analytics and consulting.
Alongside his corporate roles, he is also the founder of The Social Impact Collective, a non-profit initiative launched in 2021.
With his mix of consulting rigour, platform know-how and creator-first thinking, Prashanth arrives at JioStar at a time when the battle for viewers’ attention is sharper than ever.
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.
