ClearForest
Encyclopedia
ClearForest was a software company that develops and markets text analytics
and text mining
solutions. Founded in 1998, ClearForest has its headquarters just outside of Boston
and has development in Israel
near Tel Aviv
. It was acquired by Reuters in April, 2007. It now commercializes its services under the names Calais
, OpenCalais, and OneCalais.
ClearForest was previously venture-backed; its last funding round was led by Greylock Ventures and closed in 2005. Other investors included DB Capital Partners
, Pitango, Walden Israel, Booz Allen
, JP Morgan Partners and HarbourVest Partners
.
On April 30, 2007, Reuters announced that it would acquire ClearForest. Sources estimate the acquisition to be for $25 Million.
ClearForest also offers Text Analytics solutions targeted at specific business problems, including:
Text analytics
The term text analytics describes a set of linguistic, statistical, and machine learning techniques that model and structure the information content of textual sources for business intelligence, exploratory data analysis, research, or investigation. The term is roughly synonymous with text mining;...
and text mining
Text mining
Text mining, sometimes alternately referred to as text data mining, roughly equivalent to text analytics, refers to the process of deriving high-quality information from text. High-quality information is typically derived through the devising of patterns and trends through means such as...
solutions. Founded in 1998, ClearForest has its headquarters just outside of Boston
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
and has development in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
near Tel Aviv
Or Yehuda
Or Yehuda is a city in the Tel Aviv District in Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , the city had a population of 32,200 at the end of 2007.-History:Or Yehuda is located where the biblical city of Kefar Ono used to stand....
. It was acquired by Reuters in April, 2007. It now commercializes its services under the names Calais
Calais (Reuters Product)
Calais is a Thomson Reuters initiative to encourage the wide deployment of semantic technologies in the information and content marketplaces. Originally launched in January 2008, the initiative has garnered wide attention due to its technical capabilities and "free to all" business model.The Calais...
, OpenCalais, and OneCalais.
ClearForest was previously venture-backed; its last funding round was led by Greylock Ventures and closed in 2005. Other investors included DB Capital Partners
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
, Pitango, Walden Israel, Booz Allen
Booz Allen Hamilton
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. , or more commonly Booz Allen, is an American public consulting firm headquartered in McLean, Fairfax County, Virginia, with 80 other offices throughout the United States. Ralph Shrader is its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. The firm was founded by Edwin Booz in...
, JP Morgan Partners and HarbourVest Partners
HarbourVest Partners
HarbourVest Partners is a private equity fund of funds and one of the largest private equity investment managers globally. The firm invests in all types of private equity funds, including venture capital and leveraged buyout funds, and also directly in operating companies...
.
Company history
On February 7, 2008 Reuters announced the launch of Open Calais, a named-entity recognition and semantic analysis service that uses ClearForest technology.On April 30, 2007, Reuters announced that it would acquire ClearForest. Sources estimate the acquisition to be for $25 Million.
Solutions and Products
ClearForest offers several hosted solutions, including:- OpenCalais, a free web service and open API (for commercial and non-commercial use) that performs named-entity recognition and enables automatic metadata generation using the ClearForest financial module.
- Semantic Web Services (SWS) , an on-demand service that makes ClearForest's natural language processing tools available as a standard web service. A subset of ClearForest's capabilities is available via SWS at no cost.
- Gnosis, a free Firefox extension that uses SWS to analyze the content of a web page. Gnosis identifies named entities such as people, companies, organizations, geographies and products on the page being viewed. Gnosis also automatically processes pages from Wikipedia, providing additional links for people, geographies and other entities which were not explicitly linked within the subject article.
- Harvest, a real-time machine readable news service that uses SWS to process a company's news and document feeds and return machine-readable information about people, companies, locations and over 200 other entities facts and events.
ClearForest also offers Text Analytics solutions targeted at specific business problems, including:
- Equity valuation for hedge fundHedge fundA hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...
s and alternative investments firms - MetadataMetadataThe term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
& database creation for publishersPublishingPublishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
and information providers/services - Tapping "voice of customerVoice of the customerVoice of the customer is a term used in business and Information Technology to describe the in-depth process of capturing a customer's expectations, preferences and aversions...
" for market and survey research firms - Quality Early Warning for vehicle, capital equipment & durable goods manufacturers