Lithium bags $18m for customer community push

The company has developed what it calls a “Social CRM Suite” encompassing forums and blogs allowing customers to contribute and companies to interact and source new ideas, feedback and insights.

DAG Ventures and Tenaya Capital joined existing investors Benchmark Capital, Emergence Capital and Shasta Ventures in the financing round – the trio having previously contributed to Lithium’s $12m financing round in June 2008.

CEO Lyle Fong said the latest investment would provide the company with “a tremendous lift in to 2010 and beyond”.

“This is an exciting moment for Lithium as we will now use these resources and momentum to be even more aggressive – further extending our leadership in Social CRM and customer communities,” Fong added.