Lithium Technologies, an Emeryville, Calif. company that sells software to companies to help them build online communities with their customers, said it has raised $9 million in a first round of financing.
The six-year-old company has been bootstrapping until now, and has won customers like Cingular, Comcast, and Dell.
The round was co-led by Shasta Ventures and Emergence Capital Partners. Ravi Mohan, of Shasta Ventures, and Gordon Ritter, of Emergence Capital Partners join the company’s board.
Among Lithium’s community offerings are forums, social networking and chat.
A report by VentureWire says the company’s post-money valuation is $23 million.
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Lithium Technologies scores money to revitalize community support for enterprises » VentureBeat said:
[...] got gamers talking to each other long before the phrase “social networking” was hot. Lithium previously raised a $9 million round from Shasta Ventures and Emergence Capital Partners in 2007. Before that, Lyle bootstrapped the [...]