Leonid Radvinsky

Leo Radvinsky
Леонід Радвінський
Born
Leonid Radvinsky

1982 (age 42–43)[1]
Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
EducationNorthwestern University
Years active1999-present
Known forMajority owner of OnlyFans
Websitelr.com

Leonid Radvinsky[a] is a United Kingdom-based[2] Ukrainian-American[3] billionaire businessman and computer programmer. He is the founder of the cam site MyFreeCams (through his holding company, MFCXY, Inc.),[4][5] and the majority owner of content subscription service OnlyFans.

Biography

Radvinsky was born in Odesa and his family later emigrated to Chicago when he was a child.[6] In 2002, he graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in economics.[7][8] He is Jewish.[9]

Radvinsky operates a venture capital fund called "Leo", founded in 2009,[7] which invests mainly in tech companies.[10] Notable investments include Israel-based B4X and the social networking software Pleroma.[8] Radvinsky is also a supporter of the Elixir programming language.[3]

He donated $5 million to Ukraine relief in 2022 as well a cancer charity, an animal-welfare organization, and a skin-disorder-research fund.[8]

Career

Early career

In 1999, when Radvinsky was 17 years old, he helped incorporate Cybertania Inc., a website referral business.[6] During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Radvinsky developed more than ten websites such as Password Universe, Working Passes and Ultra Passwords that claimed and were advertised to provide users with "illegal" and "hacked" passwords to porn sites, where he earned money for every click.[6][11] However, according to Forbes there wasn't any evidence suggesting the sites actually linked to illegal content.[12] Ultra Passwords reportedly earned $1.8 million a year in revenue during the 2000s.[8]

In 2004, he founded MyFreeCams, an adult streaming website.[6] The same year, Microsoft sued Radvinsky for allegedly sending millions of deceptive emails to Hotmail users, but the case was eventually dismissed.[13][14]

OnlyFans

In 2018, he bought a 75% stake in OnlyFans' parent company Fenix International Ltd. from its British founders Tim Stokely and his dad Guy Stokely.[5][15][16] After this, OnlyFans became increasingly focused on not safe for work (NSFW) content and "gained a pop culture reputation for being a hive of pornography".[15] OnlyFans had annual revenues in excess of $6.6 billion as of November 2023, with revenues growing 19% per year.[17] Radvinsky received $472 million in dividends from the website in 2023, up from $338 million and $284 million in 2022 and 2021, respectively.[18] As of March 2024, he had an estimated net worth of $3.0 billion, per Forbes' Real-Time Billionaire rankings.[19]

Political activity

In 2023, according to The Lever's reporting on private financial documents, Radvinsky and his spouse contributed $11 million to AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group. When asked for comment, Radvinsky disputed the contribution.[20]

Notes

  1. ^ Ukrainian: Леонід Радвінський, romanized: Leonid Radvinskyi

References

  1. ^ "MR LEONID RADVINSKY". Company Check Ltd. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  2. ^ "OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky receives $338m payout". BBC News. 25 August 2023. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b Radvinsky, Leonid. "About". Retrieved 11 June 2021. A first-generation immigrant from Ukraine, technology was imprinted on Leo at an early age
  4. ^ "Mfcxy, Inc. Company Profile". D&B. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  5. ^ a b Nilsson, Patricia (30 April 2021). "OnlyFans blurs boundaries as lockdown demand drives success". The Financial Times. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d Matthew Field (October 2022). "The elusive porn baron behind OnlyFans". The Telegraph.
  7. ^ a b "Profile: Leo Radvindky". LinkedIn. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d Jyoti Mann. "OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky's quest to join the super-rich". Business Insider.
  9. ^ "The World's Jewish Billionaires 2022".
  10. ^ "Leo.com". Leo.com. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  11. ^ Brewster, Thomas; Dawkins, David (16 June 2021). "The Shady, Secret History Of OnlyFans' Billionaire Owner". Forbes. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  12. ^ Brewster, Thomas. "The Shady, Secret History Of OnlyFans' Billionaire Owner". Forbes. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  13. ^ Shaw, Lucas (5 December 2020). "OnlyFans Is a Billion-Dollar Media Giant Hiding in Plain Sight". Bloomberg LP. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  14. ^ "Amazon.com, Microsoft Team Against Online Fraud". Microsoft. 28 September 2004. Retrieved 2 July 2021. Microsoft, too, filed a new and separate lawsuit against Leonid ("Leo") Radvinsky and his Chicago-based businesses Activsoft, Inc., and Cybertania, Inc.
  15. ^ a b Zitser, Joshua (24 December 2020). "'Being made homeless is a perpetual fear': What it's like to risk everything just for posting on OnlyFans". The Independent. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  16. ^ "OnlyFans: Who is Leonid Radvinsky, the elusive owner of a porn empire?". BBC News. 27 August 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  17. ^ "Fenix International Limited - Filing History". GOV.UK. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
  18. ^ "Fenix International Limited - Filing History". GOV.UK. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
  19. ^ "The World's Real-Time Billionaires". Forbes. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  20. ^ Barshad, Amos. "Inside The Israel Lobby's New $90 Million War Chest". The Lever. Retrieved 29 March 2024.