wooga raises $24M for casual social gaming

The Zynga of Europe ranks sixth out of all Facebook developers

Let’s party like it’s 2010 (2009?) and let the social gaming venture capital keep on rolling.

wooga, easily Europe's largest developer of online social games, announced Tuesday that it has closed a $24 million Series B investment led by Highland Capital Partners, with participation from Tenaya Capital and existing investors Balderton Capital and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. Last time wooga raised funds was back in November 2009, with a $7.5 million round.

As part of the newest round, Fergal Mullen, General Partner at Highland, will join wooga's Board of Directors.

wooga ("world of gaming"), which develops popular titles like Monster World, Diamond Dash and Bubble Island, has doubled its user base this year from 14 million to 30 million monthly active users. All Facebook ranks the company, with 29.9 million users, in sixth place, just barely below Electronic Arts, which boasts 30.9 million monthly active users. Fleshing out the rest of the top five are Microsoft, RIM, Pencake Limited and, of course, Zynga.

Founded in 2009, wooga has grown from a group of five based in Berlin to an international team of 85 people in 20 countries. Looking forward, the company plans to hire more artists, game designers and engineers--at the rate of two employees a week--so that the team is 150-strong by the end of 2011.

“When we started the company everyone told us the competition was too intense, we would never make it, and now - two years later - we have three games in the top 20, making us the only developer besides Zynga which has more than two games in the top 20,” argues Jens Begemann, wooga founder and CEO.

Interestingly enough, Begemann goes on to describe the philosophical background behind his company, and it sounds exactly like one of Zynga’s representatives talking about their own company:

“[W]e design games for 100% of the population. Our games attract more viewers than some of the biggest TV shows. Millions of users spend on average 20 minutes a day playing our games, returning several times daily. Social gaming is about to transform the entertainment industry and this funding gives us the means to lead that change."

While wooga and Zynga both target the casual gaming audience, and appear to be doing more than just fine with that business model, social networks have not killed the hardcore gamer. Just last week, Kabam raised an epic $85 million Series D, from Google Ventures and others, to further develop its Facebook titles targeting that more classic, hardcore user.

The new funding will be used to both accelerate production of new games and, to that end, to support new hires.