Brands
Samir Ahluwalia, pinkshastra.com in race for Superbrand Award; entries close on 11 Nov
MUMBAI: The Superbrand’s SuperStartUps Awards has met with an overwhelming response. The organisers are having to close entries early on 11 November.
“The response we got was phenomenal, but most of the entries till now are from later-stage startups” said Shivjeet Kullar, Council Leader “We’re looking for the younger ones, the different ones, the brave ones, the ones who may have launched only a few years back but feel they can take on the world.” To this he adds “since the entry is free anyway, there’s only a fee when they win, it becomes an investment – to be recognized by the world!”
For over 20 years, Superbrands has been the definitive honour for top brands across the world. From Australia to Argentina, Germany to Ghana and UAE to USA in over 50 countries over the globe, Superbrands has been the ‘Oscar’ of the business world.
The SuperStartUp Council in India, led by legendary brand-builder turned online entrepreneur, Shivjeet Kullar, who has over 100 national and international awards to his credit, also features Make My Trip founder Deep Kalra, Sanjiv Bikchandani – the poster boy of the Internet world, Lightbox founder turned VC Sid Talwar, Prahalad Kakkar – India’s top Ad Film Maker, and Weber Shandwick CEO Valerie Pinto.
Samir Ahluwalia ex-CEO – Content Zee Media, who has just launched his start-up, says ‘we might not be the biggest start up, but we believe in our idea and our site, so we are entering and since these awards will be judged by the public we have as much a chance to win as anyone else.’ Adding to this thought, Shubho Sengupta, noted Internet evangelist and founder pinkshastra.com says ‘quite frankly it’s an investment. You only pay any fees if you win, and if you do – you immediately stand out from everyone else looking for recognition and investors!’
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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.
