OnlyFans’ reclusive billionaire owner in talks to sell site for $8B — despite pornography concerns

The reclusive billionaire who built OnlyFans into one of the most lucrative and controversial subscription platforms on the internet is reportedly in talks with a buyer to sell his company for $8 billion — despite lingering concerns about pornographic content on the site.

Leo Radvinsky, the sole owner of OnlyFans’ London-based parent company Fenix International, was recently engaged in talks with an investor group led by the Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, about a possible sale.

But the status of those talks is unclear and it appears that Radvinsky has engaged another unnamed entity that is considered a more promising bidder, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Last month, The Post reported that Radvinsky quietly put OnlyFans up for sale but that it was struggling to find a buyer due to its risqué business model.

News that Radvinsky is shopping OnlyFans comes after it was revealed that he collected nearly $1.3 billion in dividends between 2019 and early 2024, according to British corporate filings.

Still, the mogul’s ambition appears far from fulfilled. People familiar with the matter told the Journal that Radvinsky has recently engaged banks and suitors, sounding out a sale of OnlyFans for as much as $8 billion.

The Post has sought comment from Radvinsky, OnlyFans and Forest Road Company.

While OnlyFans has become a cultural lightning rod and financial juggernaut — thanks largely to its explicit content and creator-led model — its owner remains almost entirely invisible.

At 43, Radvinsky has never given a public interview, rarely appears at industry events and has left behind only a single widely circulated image online. Even those who’ve worked with him are bound by strict nondisclosure agreements.

His official website describes him modestly as a company builder, an angel investor and an aspiring helicopter pilot.

There’s no mention of OnlyFans — despite the fact that the site is the primary source of his estimated $4 billion fortune.

A sale of OnlyFans at an $8 billion valuation would further cement Radvinsky’s place among the world’s richest and most private tech entrepreneurs — and likely supercharge his philanthropic ambitions, according to the Journal.

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Radvinsky and his wife, Katie Chudnovsky, have publicly supported causes ranging from cancer research to open-source software. At a 2024 gala for a gastrointestinal research foundation chaired by Chudnovsky, she credited her husband’s generosity with enabling a $23 million grant program.

“Leo’s here tonight proving that science and miracles go hand in hand,” she said.

The gala video was quietly removed from YouTube after the Journal inquired about it.

Born in the Soviet Union, Radvinsky emigrated to the United States as a child and was raised outside Chicago. Classmates from Glenbrook South High School remember him as whip-smart and a bit of a rebel — opting for leather jackets instead of the prep wear of the day.

Even then, he was running online businesses, some with a distinctly adult edge.

Incorporation records show that his mother signed the paperwork for his first company, Cybertania, in 1999, when he was still a teenager. Among his early ventures were websites that claimed to offer hacked passwords to porn sites.

Later, he would register hundreds of domain names — many of them X-rated or referencing celebrities of the early 2000s.

In 2004, he launched MyFreeCams, one of the early players in the live camming space, where users paid performers for private shows. His eye for scalable adult-tech models would eventually lead him to OnlyFans.

Radvinsky purchased 100% of the British startup in 2018 for an undisclosed sum, according to the Journal. At the time, OnlyFans was little more than a niche site for adult content subscriptions.

Under Radvinsky, it became a global sensation — particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it added 300,000 users a day.

The business model was simple: creators keep 80% of their subscriber revenue while OnlyFans takes the rest.

“He’s obviously coming in with a very clear strategic vision for how the flows of commerce work around these sites,” Maggie MacDonald, a doctoral researcher at the University of Toronto who studies online adult platforms, told the Journal.

“He’s outsourced all of the labor of marketing to the ground floor.”

Despite its adult content roots, OnlyFans has tried to rebrand itself as a mainstream content platform. CEO Keily Blair, a former privacy lawyer, has stressed the site’s diversity — highlighting comedy, sports, and music alongside more explicit fare.

The price tag, while high, might actually be a bargain. OnlyFans is immensely profitable — something many fast-growing tech firms can’t claim. But the very thing that makes it so lucrative could also be what keeps potential acquirers at bay.

Even if a sale never materializes, Radvinsky doesn’t seem pressed for cash. He and Chudnovsky relocated to Florida, where they now reside in a palatial duplex once owned by tennis great Chris Evert, purchased for over $20 million.