A new social network dating site based in the U.S. has caught the attention of a big fish in the online dating pool. Vancouver’s PlentyofFish is among the investors providing $1.2 million in seed capital to help a potential competitor called thecomplete.me gain online traction.
POF, founded by Vancouver entrepreneur Marcus Frind, is one of a handful of angel and corporate investors that are giving thecomplete.me financial vote of confidence.
The new Facebook app pulls photos and profile data from a person’s existing social network sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. It uses the data to match users with potential romantic partners, based on their personal tastes, preferences and activities.
It’s not clear why Frind would want to invest in a potential competitor. However, in a blog posting earlier this year, Frind said he would be investing $10 million in other companies this year, and was focusing particularly on mobile dating sites. Frind has also written that the future for online dating sites like POF is mobile, not the web.
“In the last year, POF has gone from having no mobile apps to 3 billion page views a month on apps and 300 million visits and our mobile traffic continues to grow at 3% a week,” Frind blogged.
