PopCap Games has secured an investment of $22.5 million. The round of funding is the first in PopCap's ten-year history, and was led by late-stage investment firm Meritech Capital Partners.

PopCap, which now boasts a headcount of over 240 full-time employees, remains one of the world's most successful casual games companies, which has enjoyed consistent profitability thanks largely to the immense success of both the Peggle and Bejeweled series. PopCap, which made it's name with online gaming, is now embracing retail releases, most recently bringing Plants Vs. Zombies to stores' shelves.

Meritech was joined in the funding by longtime technology industry investors Larry Bowman and John McCaw.

"We're excited to have additional working capital that lets us be more aggressive with our expansion into social media and reaching new geographies," said David Roberts, CEO of PopCap. "Meritech is a premier late-stage investment firm with a portfolio that includes some of our most important business partners such as Facebook, and adding John McCaw to our investor roster is of huge strategic importance with his deep connections in the mobile and financial communities.

"We've been pursued by investment firms for many years and have resisted taking outside capital, but we liked Meritech's style and believe there's a tremendous opportunity to grow and evolve our business at a time when many other video game firms are retrenching."

"PopCap is arguably the most unique video game company on the planet," added Rob Ward, managing director at Meritech. "While other video game companies put out more flops than hits, PopCap has never produced a game that wasn't a critical and commercial success. Taking the company's boutique development style and universally appealing product lineup to the top of the video game food chain will be an exciting, potentially industry-changing, experience and we're happy to be a part of it."