Clearspring Raises $18 Million

D.C. based Clearspring, raised a third round of funding for $18 million led by New Enterprise Associates. The company has raised $35 million so far and is expanding rapidly. The company also recently launched an ad network which displays dynamic advertising on the millions of widgets that it currently displays around the web. Widgets are a hot item right now, almost as hot as social applications.

Joseph Weisenthal asked Hooman Radfar, CEO of Clearspring, about his thoughts on the health of the current ecosystem. Hooman’s response was that, “You literally can’t have as many companies that there are.” So what is Clearspring going to do with the cash in their bank account? They’ll be making acquisitions of a number of companies.

There will also be a strengthening of alliances among the leaders in this space. Currently, Slide and RockYou are the other leaders but they also extend over to social applications. There has been buzz surrounding RockYou’s latest round of funding as they try to get a serious amount of cash on the heels of Slide’s $50 million round. The word on the street is that they are having some trouble getting favorable terms and will have to consider doing a smaller round.

Look for a substantial amount of consolidation in this space over the coming months.