“Lolly Wolly Doodle is a perfect example of our core belief at Revolution that great entrepreneurs and innovative companies can be found all across the country, not just in Silicon Valley.”

So says Steve Case.

Case, the founder of AOL, and his venture capital firm Revolution Growth are announcing an investment today in Lolly Wolly Doodle, a Lexington, N.C.-based startup that sells apparel online with an emphasis on social media.

The total investment is $20 million. Revolution Growth led the round.

With the funding, the company plans to hire 100 people in North Carolina.

“Lolly Wolly Doodle proves affordable manufacturing can thrive in America – and Brandi is a true ‘Made in America’ entrepreneurial success story,” case said. Brandi Temple, a first-time entrepreneur who also is the mother of four children, launched the company.

Lolly Wolly focuses on made-to-order clothing and operates on a “just-in-time” manufacturing format.

The amount of the funding was disclosed on Lolly Wolly Doodle’s Facebook page Thursday morning.

The Facebook announcement is appropriate since the company has driven its business through social media since launching in 2008. The company says it has more than 580,000 followers and customers.

Bonnie Rothman Morris, a spokeswoman for Lolly Wolly Doodle, said Case’s firm is putting up most of the funds in the investment round.

Selling through Facebook lets the company take immediate feedback from customers into account — a suggestion that she make a certain dress in zebra print, for instance. It can also use Facebook users’ reactions to gauge demand and predict production, a leg up that transformed her living-room hobby of sewing dresses for her niece into a business that ships 30,000 kids’ garments a month.

Lolly Wolly Doodle has a loyal fan base, with more than 580,000 followers on Facebook. Startups such as Combatant Gentlemen LLC and Southern Tots have also won sales by engaging customers through the direct link provided by social media.

Incorporating consumers’ suggestions into the design process is more effective than creating a line of clothing and hoping the patterns and fabrics are popular, Temple said in an interview earlier this year.

To place an order on Lolly Wolly Doodle, users “like” the retailer’s page and comment on an item, expressing an intent to buy. The company then e-mails an invoice and ships the product. Temple has said she was originally selling on EBay Inc. (EBAY)’s site and switched when two weeks of sales via Facebook brought in as much revenue as two months on EBay.

Existing investors FirstMark Capital and High Line Venture Partners participated in the new round of funding as did existing investor Novel TMT Ventures. Revolution led the funding.

According to an SEC filing, Lolly Wolly raised $1.67 million in equity funding from three investors in 2011.

Lolly Wolly has a technology and marketing team in New York City.

“I am proud to partner with the entrepreneurs at Revolution Growth to take our company to the next level,” Temple said in a statement. “Our mission is to empower consumers to choose what they want, when they want it – and to build an iconic American brand and create good American jobs in the process. We will benefit greatly from the expertise, investment, and hands-on business-building approach of the Revolution Growth team.”

(Bloomberg contributed to this report.)