THE SCOTSMAN - July 30 - As a teenager in Glasgow, Bill Dobbie fancied becoming a pilot. However, it wasn’t to be. He earned a maths degree from St Andrews University before stumbling into the computer industry. He is CEO and co-founder of Cupid, an online dating company, that has operations in 15 countries. The newest additions are Amour.com, SeRencontrer.com and Ulla.com, three sites run out of Paris and acquired last week by Cupid in a €3.7M (£2.9m) deal. CEO Dobbie believes his company is now within striking distance of taking 15% of French online dating market. Much of this work falls to the programmers in Ukraine, a legacy of Cupid’s origins with co-founder Max Polyakov, a Ukrainian software specialist, who left Cupid earlier this year to pursue other business opportunities in the US. With an estimated £11M warchest, Cupid is expected to continue its expansion through acquisition. However, Dobbie stresses that the company will focus for the time being upon building up within its existing footprint, which is expected to generate sales of ~£74M for the full financial year.
by Kristy Dorsey
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