Lithium Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand community solutions, today announced that it has closed $9 million in Series A financing co-led by Shasta Ventures and Emergence Capital Partners. The company also announced that Ravi Mohan, Managing Director of Shasta Ventures, and Gordon Ritter, General Partner with Emergence Capital Partners, have joined Lithium's board of directors. Lithium provides market-leading solutions for building successful enterprise communities on-demand, including proven forums, social networking and chat backed by community management expertise that enables clients to decrease customer care costs while improving the overall customer experience.

“Lithium is a rising star in the white-hot community and social-networking market, powering some of the most successful enterprise communities on the web for companies like Dell, Cingular, and Comcast,” commented Ritter. “We see them filling a critical need as companies embrace the concept of community and look for ways to improve their customer experience.”

“Lithium and its management team have made significant progress to date securing key clients and delivering their industry-leading on-demand community solution,” added Mohan. “It is so rare to find a company that has bootstrapped its way to a multi-million dollar revenue stream with a Fortune 1000 client roster. It shows that the future of social software in the enterprise is a robust and growing market.”

“This financing represents a solid endorsement of our company's progress following six profitable years of being self-funded,” said Lyle Fong, CEO and co-founder of Lithium Technologies, Inc. “We are delighted to have found the right partners in Shasta and Emergence, which have proven to us to have the right relationships, relevant expertise, and capital strength that will help us accelerate our growth and take our company to the next level.”

Lithium Technologies provides market-leading solutions for building successful online communities. Lithium's on-demand platform, backed by community management expertise, enable clients to increase brand loyalty, sales, and customer satisfaction while decreasing customer care costs. Lithium’s solutions have been implemented by many of the world’s largest organizations, including Dell, Cingular, Sprint, Nintendo, Symantec, and others. Founded in 2001, Lithium is privately held with headquarters in Emeryville, Calif.

For more information, please visit www.lithium.com