Clearspring raises 18 million dollars in funding

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Clearspring raises 18 million dollars in funding

by Avatar	Stumble this!	May 21st 2008

It had to happen. the main Widget Developer finally shows their poker hand in the table for all to see. they only needed a incentive to show it. raising 18 million dollars in funding does the trick.

Not only they announced their funding raising but also show the new ways they plan to take Clearspring into the future using that money as the catalyzer to archive the goals they now boldly state.

This is of course a way to take on shiny newcomers to the widgetsphere like Gigya and Musestorm and separate themselves further from their other competitors like Springwidgets and Widgetbox and indiretly competing with alternate competitors like Netvibes and AmnestyWidgets.

In resume, they are now going against EVERYONE in the widget market.

More on all this in a more than deserving new profiling post for ClearSpring to follow tomorrow i hope.

In the meantime, their press release:

WORLD’S LARGEST WIDGET SYNDICATOR CLEARSPRING SECURES $18 MILLION IN FUNDING

New Enterprise Associates Leads the Round

McLean, Va., May 21, 2008 — Clearspring Technologies Inc., the world’s largest widget syndication and tracking service, has secured $18 million in a series C funding round that includes leading venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Novak Biddle Venture Partners and other current investors. The new round will fund expansion of Clearspring’s viral marketing network, which currently serves and tracks almost four billion widgets monthly. It will also be used to extend Clearspring’s reach into international markets and further develop its rapidly growing advertising network and vast data infrastructure and optimization services. Clearspring’s category leadership is well-established — according to comScore’s Widget Metrix report, Clearspring tallied 126 million unique widget viewers in March 2008, making it the No. 1 widget platform in the world.

“No other widget company has the breadth of relationships with content publishers, advertisers, developers and social media, as well as the full suite of widget services including syndication, in-depth analytics and easy-to-use monetization tools,” said Harry Weller, partner at NEA. “Clearspring is the leader in this space, and we look forward to working with the company as it expands its platform and extends its reach into global markets.”

Weller will join the Clearspring Board of Directors, joining, among others, Internet pioneers Steve Case, Ted Leonsis and Miles Gilburne. Case, the co-founder of America Online, Leonsis, AOL’s Vice Chairman Emeritus, who recently became Clearspring’s Chairman, and Gilburne are all credited with driving worldwide adoption of the Internet by providing tens of millions of people with their first Internet connection. Also new to the Clearspring board is Nigel Morris, co-founder of Capital One.

“We are excited about partnering with NEA. This partnership will enable us to enter the next phase of our growth and pioneer the next generation of the Social Web,” said Hooman Radfar, Clearspring co-founder and chief executive officer. “Advertisers and publishers rely on us as a channel to reach audiences on the Social Web, and this funding will enable us to extend our platform and services to continue delivering on that promise.”

Clearspring provides the platform and services connecting widget advertisers and publishers to the evolving Social Web. The company has served more than 33 billion widget views since launching its platform in 2007. Clearspring’s platform enables publishers, developers and advertisers to distribute, track and monetize content as widgets to more than 80 social networks, blogs, start pages, and bookmarking sites — including Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Blogger, iGoogle, and Windows Vista.

“Clearspring is definitely hitting on all cylinders. A growing list of world-class customers, incredible growth in the usage of its syndication services, and a significant investment from a firm with NEA’s reputation provide validation that we’re leading the charge into the next evolution of the Web,” said Leonsis. “We’re thrilled that Harry Weller and Nigel Morris have joined the board. Harry brings a proven history of guiding early stage companies to success, and Nigel, who while at Capital One unlocked the market value of their data, brings experience that will help us leverage our vast amount of data to deliver the best end-user experience and the most efficient advertising network on the Social Web.”

Marketers who have used Clearspring’s widget network include mass market consumer brands such as Aquafina, Honda, Snapple, Snickers, Sprint and Virgin Mobile. Other customers include movie and entertainment companies like Blockbuster, Disney, Fox Broadcasting, Lionsgate and Sony Pictures, major sports leagues like the NBA, NFL and NHL, major advertising agencies including 360i, Digitas, JWT, Mediacom, MindShare and Universal McCann, and world renowned media firms such as ESPN, National Geographic, NBC Universal, Newsweek, Time-Warner and Washingtonpost.com. Also, top international recording artists including Linkin Park, Madonna, Radiohead and U2 have successfully launched promotions using Clearspring widgets.

As i have stated before in terms of Branded Widgets, Commercial laden widgets and Promo Widgets. ClearSpring is indeed the way to go. on more focused and high end widgets. i don´t think so, and i have not seen anything that proves me wrong. so the high end Widget market, the Mobile Widget market and the RIA Widget market is the markets to explore, and markets that i don´t see Clearspring competing in at this moment. of course that could change but somehow i doubt it.

Lets see what Hooman and the clearspring gang presents us later in WidgetWebExpo. now it sure is gearing up to be a super interesting event with the more than surely announcements to come from all the main Widget Players in response to this new frontal challenge by ClearSpring.

Clearspring