Clearspring, the widget company that has broken into the advertising and distributed media realm, has raised $18 million in a Series C round of funding, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Novak Biddle Venture Partners, with existing investors also participating in the round.
Harry Weller, a partner at NEA, will be joining the Clearspring Board of Directors, as will Steve Case, co-founder of AOL, Ted Leonsis, AOLs Vice Chairman Emeritus (who is now Clearspring's Chairman), Miles Gilburne, and Nigel Morris, co-founder of Capital One, who also has a great deal of experience in helping companies go public. That's a lot of new board members to go along with the hefty round of funding, and a pretty powerful set of newcomers.
Clearspring Looking for an Exit, or an IPO?
Plans for Putting $18 Million to Good Use: Standardize & Make Smarter Widget Ads
So with $18 in Series C, has Clearspring joined the ranks of Ning, Slide, and the rest? I'd say so. With standards for widget distribution, a platform available for publishers to create, distribute and track their own widgets, a developing advertising network and other tools for widgetizing and monetizing web content, Clearspring is among the most prominent widget platforms out there.
And Clearspring is only going to get bigger. The funding will be used for three main aspects of the company: expanding Clearspring in the ad space, cultivating its data collection and reporting services, and growing its sales team. On aspect of this growth plan that was of particular interest to me was the data collection and reporting services.
As most other widget companies have done for the past couple of years, Clearspring has been gathering demographic information on its users, advertisers, an methods of distribution. While such a sprawled, consumer-driven technique hasn't become fully standardized for monetization purposes, the space is getting there.
Clearspring is hoping to help provide that standard by further developing its tracking tools. In doing so, widgets and advertisements, whether they be in-widget ads or full widget ads, can be placed on sites more effectively. This improved execution for ad placement is a common goal for online advertising companies, and in my experience, widget companies with advertising components are well equipped to offer a set of metrics that's useful towards this end.
Next Stop for Clearspring: More Social