What Khoros(formerly Lithium Technologies) does

Khoros, formerly Lithium Technologies, is a U.S.-based enterprise software company that builds community and social media management platforms for Fortune 500 brands across financial services, retail, technology, telecommunications, and travel & hospitality. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of IgniteTech following its May 2025 acquisition. The current product portfolio consists of two AI-native applications unified by a shared intelligence layer: Aurora AI (an AI-native enterprise community platform featuring Answer Assist, AI Moderation, and Orchestrator agents) and Iris AI (an AI-native social media management platform providing listening, publishing, engagement, and analytics across 187 languages). Khoros reports that more than 300 enterprise communities run on its platform, generating 1.8 billion community site visits per year, and that its proprietary dataset of two decades of Fortune 500 customer conversations is the training foundation for the AI systems.

Khoros generates revenue through quote-based annual SaaS subscriptions sold via an enterprise field sales motion, with no public pricing tiers disclosed. The company is actively migrating its installed base from the legacy Community Classic platform to Aurora AI on a free-migration basis through December 31, 2026 (a service previously valued at up to $500,000 per customer). Under IgniteTech's ownership, Khoros has consolidated around an AI-first architecture, reported material operational improvements (60% ticket resolution, 82% backlog reduction, 97% downtime reduction), and reduced headcount to approximately 116 Austin-based employees following post-acquisition layoffs. The platform holds 16.7% market share in the Online Community Management Software category, ranking second behind Higher Logic.

Khoros's go-to-market relies on direct enterprise sales supported by verticalized industry pages, customer stories, analyst recognition programs, training and certification (Khoros Academy), and a developer portal. The company distributes through corporate channels on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and participates in industry events including Fortune Brainstorm Tech. Strategic positioning emphasizes that the platform is AI-native rather than AI-retrofitted, with the proprietary 20-year customer conversation corpus and 300+ community footprint positioned as the primary competitive moat against greenfield and legacy incumbents.

Name

Khoros(formerly Lithium Technologies)

Legal name

Khoros, LLC

Website

https://khoros.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Khoros builds AI-native community and social media management software (Aurora AI and Iris AI) for Fortune 500 brands across financial services, retail, technology, telecom, and travel. Now a wholly-owned IgniteTech subsidiary, it serves 300+ enterprise communities generating 1.8 billion visits annually.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Customer Engagement Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Marketing Automation Platforms & Services (BPAFAFAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Social Customer Service & Conversational Sales Platforms (CRAFANAL), Advertising, Marketing & Customer Personalization (HDAAAGAC), AI Integration & Orchestration Platforms (Connectors, Workflow, iPaaS for AI) (HDAEANAI)

Keywords

• Customer engagement platform
• Community management software
• Social media management
• AI customer service
• Enterprise community software

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. SaaS Platform Subscription: Subscription-based SaaS platform for enterprise customer engagement, including community management (Aurora AI) and social media management (Iris AI). Platform supports 300+ enterprise communities generating billions of customer interactions annually.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Khoros sells an AI-native customer engagement platform for enterprise brands, delivered as two unified SaaS products: Aurora AI (community platform for customer self-service, knowledge synthesis, automated moderation, and gamification) and Iris AI (social media management platform for social listening, publishing, engagement, and analytics across 187 languages). Both products share a common intelligence layer that learns customer behavior and brand voice from 20+ years of Fortune 500 conversation data.

Product overview

Khoros is an AI-native customer engagement platform offering two core products: Aurora AI (enterprise community platform) and Iris AI (social media management platform). Both products share a unified intelligence layer that learns customer behavior, brand voice, and business context. Aurora AI addresses community questions and knowledge management while Iris AI handles social media operations across 187 languages and multiple channels. The platform was rebuilt from legacy Community Classic into AI-native architecture under IgniteTech ownership since May 2025.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Aurora AI: AI-native community platform that handles customer support, product feedback, and community moderation without manual intervention. Features AI agents including Answer Assist, AI Moderation, and Orchestrator.
• Iris AI

Products and services

• Aurora AI Aurora AI is Khoros' AI-native community platform that enables customer self-service, knowledge synthesis from community conversations, automated moderation, gamification, and lifecycle management. It is intended for enterprise brands seeking to scale customer support deflection, peer-to-peer connection, and community engagement without proportional headcount growth, addressing the 30% of community questions that previously went unanswered.
• Iris AI Iris AI is Khoros' AI-native social media management platform that unifies social listening, publishing, engagement, and analytics in a single intelligent system. It maintains conversation context across channel transfers and team handoffs, with intelligent routing based on topic, sentiment, urgency, and expertise. It is built for enterprise brands managing social engagement at scale across multiple languages and channels.

Quantifiable outcome

• 60% ticket resolution rate (up from 5% prior to IgniteTech ownership)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• IgniteTechcoreOthersIgniteTech acquired Khoros in May 2025, transforming it into an AI-native organization. IgniteTech has invested in rebuilding Khoros platforms (Aurora AI and Iris AI), offering free migration from legacy Community Classic, and has achieved significant operational improvements including 60% ticket resolution rates and 97% reduction in platform downtime.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Higher Logic: Higher Logic is the #1 vendor in the Online Community Management Software market at 19.3% share versus Khoros's 16.7%. It offers an association and enterprise community platform that directly overlaps with Aurora AI, competing head-to-head for community-led customer engagement budgets.
• Sprinklr: Sprinklr is the closest direct competitor to Iris AI, offering a unified customer experience platform that spans social media management, social listening, and brand care for large enterprises. Both Khoros and Sprinklr sell enterprise GTM motions and compete for the same Fortune 500 marketing budgets.
• Brandwatch (now part of Cision): Brandwatch is a leading consumer intelligence and social listening platform listed alongside Khoros for enterprise brand reputation management. Both compete for the same social listening and sentiment-analysis workloads across Fortune 500 brands.
• Salesforce Experience Cloud: Salesforce's Experience Cloud is a direct competitor in branded enterprise communities, often sold as part of the broader Salesforce CRM stack. Customers evaluating Khoros Aurora AI frequently compare against Experience Cloud because of CRM integration benefits.
• Hootsuite: Hootsuite is one of the largest standalone social media management platforms, overlapping with Iris AI on publishing, scheduling, and engagement workflows for brand and marketing teams.
• Talkwalker: Talkwalker provides AI-powered social listening and analytics across languages and channels, comparable to Iris AI's 187-language monitoring capability. Both vendors compete for global enterprise brand monitoring RFPs.
• Meltwater: Meltwater is a media intelligence and social listening suite that overlaps directly with Iris AI's monitoring capabilities. Both target enterprise marketing and comms teams and have been listed together in enterprise brand reputation management rankings.

Broad incumbents

• Verint: Verint is a broad customer engagement and contact center AI incumbent offering social listening, community analytics, and agent-assist capabilities. Its broader portfolio overlaps with Iris AI's intelligent routing and Aurora AI's knowledge synthesis in larger enterprise deployments.
• Medallia: Medallia is a leading enterprise experience management platform covering customer feedback, social, and digital channels. Its social and digital modules compete with parts of Iris AI's listening and engagement stack for enterprise CX budgets.

Emerging players

• Yotpo: Yotpo combines community, reviews, and loyalty into a commerce-focused engagement platform. While more SMB/mid-market oriented, its unified community-plus-engagement positioning parallels Khoros's Aurora+Iris narrative in a different buyer segment.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Khoros
• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/khoros
• Facebookfacebook.com/KhorosLLC
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/28789
• Instagraminstagram.com/KhorosLLC

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds9 records

Investors12 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A8 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Khoros(formerly Lithium Technologies)