Payoneer Raises $8 million Series B From Greylock And Carmel

When Paypal competitor Payoneer has raised $8 million in a Series B financing from Greylock and Carmel ventures. That brings the total the company has raised to $14 million. (Greylock led the Series A).

Payoneer's advantage over Paypal in the micro-payments arena is that it makes international payments easier by not requiring a bank account for verification. Websites like iStockPhoto or Metacafe can issue pre-paid Mastercard debit cards to their customers and transfer funds electronically to the credit card account. The account can be used as a regular electronic payment transfer system as well similar to Paypal.

The Israeli startup (whose headquarters are in New York City), will use the new cash to fund expansion into more markets and invest in technologies to detect and prevent fraud and abuse by criminals and terrorists.

If you are going to go after a niche in the payments industry, international payments is about as big a niche as you can get. But it can also be a dangerous game in the post-9/11 world.