There's plenty of venture cash available for any companies in the social gaming space, but US outfit Crowdstar has already proved its chops on Facebook with games such as Happy Aquarium, Happy Pets and It Girl.

That's the reason its first funding round has attracted some big name companies. The impressive $23 million round was led by Intel Capital and Time Warner Investments, also gaining participation from Chinese online outfit The9 and NVInvestments.

"We are delighted to add financial capital into CrowdStar, with world class investors like Intel Capital and Time Warner Investments," said Peter Relan, co-founder, chairman and CEO of CrowdStar, who has previously seen Intel Capital and The9 invest in and exit from OpenFeint, another company he bootstrapped.

"We plan to invest broadly across all areas of our business, and particularly to add more extraordinary talent into the company," Relan added.

Light the blue touch paper

"We have long been impressed with CrowdStar's track record of success in the social games space and their analytical, data-driven approach to building a fast-growing games business," said Rachel Lam, SVP and group managing director of Time Warner Investments.

"Time Warner's unique IP franchises and extensive media resources coupled with a social games leader like CrowdStar has the potential to truly impact the way consumers engage in social gaming."

CrowdStar will use the funding for hiring and acquiring talent. Already with over 100 employees, it's looking to double headcount as well as growing through new company 'acquihires' in the mobile and social gaming spaces.

As well as expanding its Facebook business, Crowdstar is looking to expand globally - China is a major goal - and tackle mobile. To-date, it's only released one app, a Facebook-enabled companion to It Girl on iOS.