The funding will be paid out over three years and will be invested in its Auckland-based R&D team and international sales and marketing resources to target growth among small to medium sized organisations and contact centre operators worldwide.

The grants, administered by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, support firms with a good track record of spending a significant proportion of their revenue on research and development.

$92 million is due to be invested into 26 businesses across 2010 and 2011 in the high value manufacturing sector.

Recipient companies are reimbursed 20% of eligible R&D expenditure on a business’s R&D programme, up to $NZ2.4 million (excluding GST) a year.

Miles Valentine, Zeacom’s CEO, said, “Our success to date is based on nimble, customer focussed development that can be leveraged through partnerships with the world’s biggest technology vendors. The Technology Development Grant will build New Zealand capability in software design in the high growth Unified Communications and Contact Centre categories.”