The owner of the OnlyFans streaming site, Leonid Radvinsky, has died at the age of 43 after a long battle with cancer, the company announced on Monday.
The billionaire Ukrainian-American entrepreneur bought Fenix International Limited, the company that owns the adult content site, in 2018 and has been a director and majority shareholder since then.
A spokesperson for OnlyFans says: “We are deeply saddened to announce the death of Leo Radvinsky. Leo passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer. His family have requested privacy at this difficult time.”
Radvinsky’s deal to buy OnlyFans followed just two years after the site was launched by British father and son Guy and Tim Stokely.
The firm behind OnlyFans, which is based in the United Kingdom, has paid out eye-watering dividends to Radvinsky since he acquired the company, with a record US$701 million (about N$12 billion) paid out in 2024 as the streaming site saw user numbers jump by almost a quarter to 377.5 million globally.
The company is headquartered and pays tax in the United Kingdom but makes the majority of its money in the United States.
Radvinsky, who was born in Ukraine and grew up in Chicago, had reportedly been in talks to sell a majority stake in the site, with discussions recently believed to have been held with investment firm Architect Capital in a deal that values the service at around US$5.5 billion (about N$93 billion), including debt.
The most recent Companies House accounts showed that OnlyFans revenues grew by 9% to US$1.41 billion (about N$24 billion) in 2024, compared to the previous year, helping pre-tax profits grow by 4% to US$684 million (about N$12 billion).
It took in around US$7.2 billion (about N$122 billion) from subscribers over the year, and paid out US$5.8 billion (about N$103 billion) of these back to creators.
OnlyFans reported that the total number of creator accounts producing content for the site grew by 13% to 4.6 million as more people used it as an opportunity to make a living.
The stronger financial performance led to significant cash windfalls for Radvinsky, with OnlyFans paying US$497 million (about N$8.4 billion) in dividends to Radvinsky’s Fenix International in 2024, with a further US$204 million (about N$3 billion) of dividends between December and April.
Radvinsky is understood to have transferred his shares in Fenix International to the LR Fenix Trust in late 2024.
He also ran a Florida-based venture capital fund called Leo, which he founded in 2009 to focus on investing in tech firms.
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