OnlyFans is looking to partner up with a blank-check company, or SPAC, to lay the groundwork for an initial public offering — but there are no takers despite the porn platform strong finances, according to a report.
Potential investors and SPAC partners have been hesitant to get involved with OnlyFans because it amounts to a giant online marketplace for pornography, according to Axios.
One of the SPACs that was wooed by OnlyFans was Forest Road Acquisition Corp. II, which includes Shaquille O’Neal as an advisor.
According to Axios, the SPAC “couldn’t get past the porn.”
Last year, OnlyFans was struggling to find venture capital cash as it searched for a “strategic partner.”
The company retained the services of The Raine Group, the tech-center merchant bank, in hopes of finding a firm that would inject cash into the firm.
But none of the major VCs — all of whom were scared off by the sex-driven platform — bothered to do their due diligence, according to Axios.
OnlyFans’ struggle to find blue-chip backers could be a warning sign for content creators to tone down their X-rated offerings, according to one of its stars.
Allie Rae, the Massachusetts ICU nurse and mother-of-three who left her $84,000-a-year job last year and started earning $200,000 a month on OnlyFans, told the Post that the company’s drive to go public may force it to “clean things up.”
“Porn does not go hand in hand with going public,” she told The Post.
Allie Rae, 37, said that while she continues to create content on OnlyFans for her 30,000 monthly subscribers, the writing could be on the wall.
She told the Post she was moved to create her own crypto-friendly platform after OnlyFans announced last year that it would stop allowing pornographic material on its platform.
But a public outcry against the change in policy prompted the company to reverse course.
Rae now says that OnlyFans’ difficulty in drawing investor interest should prompt content creators to protect themselves in case the site shifts business strategies and starts limiting its content to “PG-rated.”
Last year, OnlyFans launched OFTV, a streaming platform in which celebrities appear in cooking shows and comedic skits.
The firm hopes that moving away from its porn-heavy emphasis will enable it to attract more interest from Wall Street.
Allie Rae says that content creators need to prepare ahead of time.
“I love OnlyFans. OnlyFans has changed my life,” she told the Post. “But I’m a businesswoman.”
“Content creators need to be prepared and to have other options.”
