OnlyFans, the UK adult video platform, is in talks to sell a minority stake to a US investor that will value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).

The London-based company is in advanced talks to sell a stake of less than 20% to the San Francisco-based investment firm Architect Capital, according to the Financial Times. Sources familiar with the process confirmed the talks to the Guardian.

OnlyFans has decided that offloading a minority stake is the best guarantee of stability for a business dealing with the death of its founder, Leonid Radvinsky. Radvinsky, a Ukrainian-American billionaire, died of cancer last month at the age of 43.

It is understood that OnlyFans is interested in a deal with Architect because the firm has expertise in the financial services sector, reflecting the UK company’s interest in offering banking products to its creators, who have struggled to access such services owing to the nature of their work.

OnlyFans is a highly profitable business synonymous with pornography, which is provided by creators who charge subscribers for access to their material.

The site has a strict 18+ age limit. According to the latest accounts filed by OnlyFans’ parent business, Felix International, it has 4.6m accounts registered to creators who split the proceeds from their subscriptions 80:20 with the platform. The site has 377m fan accounts, enabling users to buy videos from, and send messages to, their favourite performers.

OnlyFans posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30 November 2024, with a pretax profit of $684m – a rise of 4% over the prior year. Payments to creators were $7.2bn over the same period, an increase of nearly 10%.

Radvinksy was paid $701m in dividends from OnlyFans in 2024, on top of the more than $1bn in such payments he had already received from the business.

In January OnlyFans was reported to have been in talks with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60%, which followed reports the previous year that the company had been in talks about a sale to a consortium led the Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm.

If OnlyFans pushes ahead with a minority sale, it will mean control of the business will be with the family trust that holds Radvinsky’s shares.

OnlyFans declined to comment. Architect Capital has been contacted for comment.