TGIF - Friday Wrap Up and Weekly News

This week was full of tech news that deserve some VC Cafe attention. Here's a short recap on the headlines that didn't get their own post:

Payoneer raises $3M from Greylock partners

Payoneer markets manages and services prepaid MasterCard cards together with the Royal Bank of Scotland and the First Bank of Delaware. Anyone 13 years or older can get a card, by filling out a form online. The fully-functioning debit MasterCards offer web-based businesses issuing co-branded cards, earning different fees ranging from card activations to process fees on money charges. Clients already include Mahsable, odesk and most recently istockphoto.

Greylock Partners Israel invested $3M out of a $4M round. Payoneer was founded in 2005 and has a head count of 25 with offices in New York and Tel-Aviv. Their competitors include WebCertificate, NetSpend and BuyRight.

[via Techcrunch (thanks Roi)]

MySpace Plans to open Israeli branch, looking to hire content manager

The Marker Israel reports that MySpace.com is looking to open offices in Israel. MySpace published a job ad on linked in, looking for a content manager in Israel.

The following position is available at MySpace Israel. The position is demanding and fast paced, requiring an individual who thrives in a start up environment. This position is based in Israel.

[via The Marker and Startup Israel]

Technion Seed - four VC funds partner with Israeli university

The Tehcnion incubator (TEIC) understood that in order to grow successful companies, it will need more funding. The university aims to solve the problem through the creation of a type of incubator - jointly owned by Technion Israel Institute of Technology and four venture capital funds: Vertex Venture Capital, Vitalife Life Sciences Venture, ProSeed Venture Capital Fund and US fund Battery Ventures. Companies accepted to be part of the incubator will recieve funding straight from the VC funds. The Technion Seed Lab is led by Moshe Catzenelson, former CEO of LabOne Innovations Inc..

[via Globes ]

Facebook Israel Network surpases 100K users

Back at the end of June there were about 18,000 people on the Israel Network on Facebook. Following the Von Conference in Israel on October 14th, it grew to 74,000. Since then It has been growing exponentially with now over 100K users. A growth of 33% was recorded in about 9 days. Given that Facebook is an English language platform, as Shel Israel wrote, “that is truly amazing.”
[via Shel Israel, Jeff Pulver]

Terrorists use Google Earth to Find Targets in Israel

Members of Palestine’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group aligned with the Fatah political party, has admitted to using Google Earth for mapping targets for rocket strikes.
[via Mahsable]

Reuters buys Israeli start-up ClearForest

ClearForest has developed text analysis solutions for business intelligence applications.

Globes and Haaretz reported that Reuters Group has acquired Israeli text analysis technology developer ClearForest Ltd. for about $25 million. The companies announced the deal today, before trading began on Nasdaq.

ClearForest was founded in 1998 by chairman and chief scientist Dr. Ronen Feldman and CTO Dr Yonatan Aumann . Aumann is the son of Nobel Prize for Economics Laureate Prof. Israel Aumann.

ClearForest, developed technology to analyse, read and understand large amounts of content originating from diverse documents. Reuters is one of the clients for its technology, which tags content by the principles of artificial intelligence. Other prominent clients include: DowJones, Boing and the FBI.

ClearForest has 31 employees and led by Barak Pridor. Headquartered in Boston, the company has a development center in Or Yehuda, Israel. Under the acquisition agreement, the company will operate under Reuters Search and Strategy Division, headed by Gary Campbell.

Its Israeli shareholders include Greylock Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Walden Israel, Plenus, and Kadima Hi-tech. Foreign investors include ABS Ventures, Booz Allen Hamilton, Dow Venture Capital, HarbourVest and JPMorgan.

Source: Globes