The owner of OnlyFans, a site known for its adult content that is credited with revolutionising the online porn industry, has died at the age of 43.

Leonid Radvinsky, who was born in Ukraine and grew up in Chicago, had purchased the company in 2018 from its two UK-based founders.

The site's popularity surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, landing him on Forbes' annual list of billionaires just three years later.

He "passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer," OnlyFans confirmed in a statement, which asked for privacy for his family.

Founded in 2016, OnlyFans is a social media platform where creators can post videos and photos and charge subscribers for tips or a monthly fee.

Creators share a range of content from cooking to fitness videos, but it is best known for pornography and the way it encourages creators and fans to connect through livestreams, personalised messages, and direct requests for custom-made photos and videos.

In return for hosting the material, OnlyFans takes a 20% share of all payments.

The company generated $1.4bn in revenue and had more than 377 million subscribers in 2024, according to its most recent Companies House filing.

About 4.6 million creators were posting to the site that year, it said.

Radvinsky graduated with an economics degree from Northwestern University.

As well as OnlyFans, he invested in tech companies via a Florida-based venture capital firm, Leo.com.

He also supported "several philanthropic projects globally," OnlyFans said, without going into specifics.