Personal questions and answers service Formspring had raised $11.5 million in Series A financing, which is a pretty good feat for any company, especially one who admittedly doesn’t have an applicable business model. This round brings the Formspring’s total funding to $14 million.

“Since Formspring was first introduced roughly a year ago, its popularity has exploded. More than 20 million people have signed up for the site and nearly 2 billion answers to questions have been posted through the Web site. The company says it will use the fresh injections of money to double its staff of 19 employees and scale the company’s infrastructure.”

The round was led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from Baseline Ventures and other investors.  We’re really wondering what Redpoint is thinking with this particular investment.  Formspring looks a lot like the Bathroom Wall app that was swiftly protested and banned.  Dipping into the underbelly of the web, Redpoint’s making it pretty easy for anything to get funded these days.

Formspring’s social network-structured Q & A service has a unique emphasis on personal questions, and recently added a “Respond” button which syncs selected sections of the site with 3^rd party websites, including other social networks.

Formspring apparently doesn’t have a business model and doesn’t generate any revenue whatsoever – CEO Ade Olonoh “has not yet figured that out.”  These two circumstances don’t really explain the $14 million the company has raised so far, nor does it explain how its investors plan to get a return on their investment. Nonetheless, Formspring investors’ obviously consider Formspring to have some potential, even despite the fact it has been dubbed a “hive spam.”

Editor’s Note:  We have an important point brought up in the comments thread, by our founder John Furrier, which we feel is deserving of a post update.  It reads as follows:

Formspring is a classic example of a site that has massive user growth that get attention from investors.  If you look under the covers you see that Formspring is playing in the underbelly of the social networks where cyberbullying, teen suicide, and slander (like Bathroom Wall on Facebook).  Yes Facebook closed down bathroom wall and since Formspring took off.

The issue is can Formspring sequence from a “evil” app to a commercial offering.  I don’t think so.  Not sure the audience is loyal to formspring.  At the moment Formspring is a great place for teens to talk smack… I’ve been watching how Formspring has been playing out on Facebook – it’s not pretty.