Livemocha has brewed up $8 million in new venture financing, money that the Bellevue startup will use to enhance the online language service, add new partners and build out the team. The 18-person startup -- co-founded by former Microsoft employee and TeamOn Systems CEO Shirish Nadkarni --has already attracted quite a following since its launch just over a year ago.

The company claims to be the largest "language learning community" on the planet with more than 4.8 million registered members in 200 countries. Users of the service can choose from more than 30 different languages and 160 hours of lessons. But, more importantly, they can interact online with a native speaker to practice and get useful language tips.

"Our approach is simple: the most natural way to learn a language is by practicing with real native speakers," said Clint Schmidt, vice president of marketing and product at Livemocha. Learning correct pronunciations or words from native speakers is "a simple and natural way to develop real, practical language skills," said Schmidt.

Nadkarni

The company started with free online courses, but expanded with premium versions. One example is Livemocha Active English, an online course developed in conjunction with Pearson Education.

Prior to the introduction of that online program, Schmidt said a course of that caliber required a physical location at a school with a dedicated teacher. The company also faces competition from some of the packaged software vendors such as Rosetta Stone and Topics Entertainment.

"Although word-of-mouth has driven our growth thus far, we plan to take a more aggressive approach towards marketing,"Schmidt said. "In this day and age, we find it puzzling that Rosetta Stone still sells CD-ROMs for hundreds of dollars each."

August Capital led the latest round, with Seattle-based Maveron also participating. Total funding in the company now stands at $14 million. Angel investors who previously backed the company include Sam Jadallah, Greg Stanger, Sunny Gupta and Raghav Kher.

As a result of the new money, August Capital's Howard Hartenbaum has joined Livemocha's board.

John Cook is co-founder of TechFlash. Follow on Twitter @johnhcook.