Clarity, the Moncton-based startup that connects entrepreneurs with advisers around the world, has announced a $1.6 million round of investment, which is a key step in founder Dan Martell’s plan to develop a multinational company over the next decade or so.

The financing includes investment by two Silicon Valley venture capital funds that backed Halifax-based co-browsing sensation GoInstant, as well as a range of funds and individuals from across North America. While it is one of the largest VC deals in the region this year, it is most notable because of the quality of investor.

Martell, the serial entrepreneur who launched the company earlier this year, said in an interview that he took on the investment because of the expertise and connections that these investors bring. The buzz created by a VC round is also important.

“When you’re working on an idea with potential, it’s not only the capital (that makes a young company raise money)," he said in an interview. “It’s also the narrative that raising capital can create.”

Clarity issued a statement saying the funding was led by: Baseline Ventures, a San Francisco-area fund that has invested $1.2 billion in more than 60 companies; Freestyle Capital, another Bay Area fund that was founded by seasoned tech entrepreneurs; and Mark Cuban, the flamboyant owner of the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA.

Baseline and Freestyle were both early investors in GoInstant, a Halifax company that raised $1.7 million from a group of blue-chip investors in the summer of 2011 and sold out to Salesforce.com for more than $70 million a year later.

The other investors in Clarity’s latest round are: Real Ventures of Montreal; Version One Ventures, a Vancouver fund headed by noted investor Boris Wertz; 500 Startups, of Mountainview, Ca.; Venture 51 of Phoenix, AZ; and several angels including Gerry Pond, the co-founder of East Valley Ventures of Saint John.

Martell is one of the leading serial entrepreneurs in the region, having sold his first venture Spheric Technologies in 2008. He then moved to California, where he co-founded Flowtown, a San Francisco online gift marketing enterprise, which raised $750,000 from angels in September 2010. Thirteen months later, Martell and his partners exited the company for an undisclosed price.

Martell said that he has learned that what he enjoys most is building up a business and some of that is lost with a quick exit, so he plans to continue to develop Clarity into a large company over the next seven to 10 years. He will need to raise more money in the future, and hopes to list Clarity on a stock exchange eventually.

Clarity has an international directory of experts in several fields, and entrepreneurs can select an adviser based on their expertise and price level to help find advice for the problems they face. The company has handled about 12,000 calls across 43 countries.

Clarity will use the money it’s raised to launch a host of new features, including a daily blog and a tool that can help entrepreneurs find the best advisers for their individual needs.

Martell said he also wants to work on offering the service in additional languages – starting with French and Spanish – because people tend to like receiving advice and discussing business problems in their mother tongue.