Clearspring’s been steadily expanding on its foundation for well over a year now, so it wasn’t surprising to hear they’d raised $20 million in a Series D round of funding.  Led by IVP, with participation from existing investors, the fresh infusion is slotted to continue Clearspring’s growth around big social data, something co-founder and CEO Hooman Radfar discussed with me a few weeks ago.  Clearspring’s always been a product well prepped for today’s data revolution, and the company is in a great position to take full advantage.

In the midst of a significant growth spurt, the funding round comes at a great time for Clearspring, pushing the company forward in this emerging data-driven economy.  Clearspring has been busy building up its platform, which has centered around the AddThis sharing tool.  A staple for publishers, the AddThis icon has been enabled on a reported 9 million websites globally, connecting to over 300 social networks in 70 languages.  This has given Clearspring a back door look at web activity, from a social perspective and beyond.  Its reach exceeds 1 billion unique internet users on a given day, carving advertising channels that are directed and, now, portable.

It’s the data insight that makes Clearspring an interesting case, gaining its strength in real-time data analysis.  The data is steeped in interest activity, knowing how, when and where users share information socially, and otherwise.  Given the power in recognizing these patterns of social influence, advertisers are clamoring to make sense of web-based interaction, seeking the best way to humanize the mounds of data in order to improve their own methods of interaction.  Reaching an understanding around this data has been an undeniable goal for publishers and advertisers ever since the social media phenomenon began, and Clearspring has not only survived the industry’s evolution, but has been reinforcing its foundation all along.

“We’ve always held the view that big data would be one of the most valuable assets to come out of the social web,” said Ted Leonsis, Clearspring’s Chairman, as well as founder, CEO and majority owner of Monumental Sports and Entertainment and owner of the Washington Capitals, Wizards, Mystics and Verizon Center.  “It is no surprise to anyone close to the company that we have parlayed our expertise in social sharing to achieve a reach surpassing Yahoo!.  In the last year, we’ve started to leverage that reach via our Audience Platform.  But we’ve just started to scratch the surface.  With this investment, we’ll see just how far we can go.”

Clearspring’s got its sights set on accelerated growth, which will likely include another acquisition or two.  So far, the incorporation of AddThis has been its most notable buy, but as the market shifts towards data analysis and application, Clearspring’s $20 million round will surely facilitate some worthy strategies in the coming months.