Brands
Nestle to fund SilverPush & IotPot pilots, ad:tech concludes
MUMBAI: ad:tech, one of the largest digital marketing event, concluded its 7th edition of Digital Marketing & Advertising Conference & Exhibition in India at Gurgaon.
ad:tech 2017 had keynotes from industry veterans and enlightening sessions for the adverting marketing community. The event witnessed a large footfall which included exhibitors, marketers, and industry leaders and an Innovation Zone with the latest disruptive technology in digital marketing.
The second day of the action packed digital marketing event saw keynote from Times Internet’s Gautam Sinha on ‘Re-inventing digital engagement’ followed by GroupM’s Rob Norman who engaged the audience with a dynamic session on ‘Facebook and Google duopoly and the challengers to that’. These introductory keynotes were followed by spotlight sessions on topics like ‘Ecommerce companies as media platforms’, ‘Vernacular on Mobile’ and others.
The second day concluded with the keynote by Bharat Anand, HBS Professor and author-The Content Trap who shared his insights on ‘Reflection of marketing in a digital age’.
SilverPush and IotPot walked away with the coveted ‘The Next Big Thing’ title along with a fully-funded pilot with Nestlé. This year ad:tech brought its global initiative ‘The Next Big Thing’ to India in partnership with Nestlé India with the aim to build a platform that brings entrepreneurs and marketing leaders together and kick start collaborations. This proves to be a great platform for start-ups to prove their mettle by showcasing their indigenous ideas in front of Nestlé and digital media professionals and thereby walking away with a fully funded project.
Comexposium India Country MD Jaswant Singh said, “The 7th edition brought together more than 100 companies from across the globe to exhibit what’s new and what’s next. Over the years ad:tech is developing as a coveted platform for the community to deliver content which is relevant in this fast changing dynamic industry.”
This year’s event witnessed phenomenal additions of companies like IBM, Accenture, Gameloft, Taboola, GSK, SAP, Yes Bank, Maruti Suzuki and Pepsico India,
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.
