Livemocha makes $8 million Series B

Online language learning program gets new funds for further product development

Livemocha, an online language education program, has raised new Series B funding totaling to $8 million in a round led by August Capital and contributed to by return backer Maveron.

Having raised $6 million from Maveron in December 2007, Livemocha has now increased its total funds raised to $14 million.

Livemocha provides a service for learning any of over 30 different languages, and users can choose to opt for a free account or a premium paid account. The free courses already provide a great deal of perks, like tons of lessons and a focus on conversation, but the best part is that one can connect with an actual native speaker to improve speaking skills in real, live conversation.

Premium accounts additionally include supplemental material as audio/video downloads, further grammar instruction, and interaction with trained tutors in one's particular subject.

As learning languages online has been picking up a lot of steam with customers lately, Livemocha has a hefty list of services to compete with in the same niche:  babbel, EnglishCentral, Idapted, italki, Myngle, and Yappr. Nevertheless, Livemocha appears to be doing quite strongly, having registered 4.8 million members in over 200 countries. On top of that, users from 97 countries are already paying for the premium services available through Livemocha.

Livemocha's latest funds will drive further development of its service as well as spur new company partnerships.