Soon-to-be listed software company Xero has won an international business planning award in Wales.
The International Business Wales and Technium UK has named Xero as the winner of its first International Technium Challenge .
The challenge is aimed at attracting more international technology companies with high growth potentialto Wales.
Technium Director Steve Davies said Xero, an online web-based accounting package for smaller businesses, stood out particularly for its business plan to expand into the British market.
Xero chief executive Rob Drury said the win would give Xero a British business passport, giving it office space at the technium's incubator and accelerating its launch into Europe.
The New Zealand company will also receive a business support package worth over $120,000, including legal, marketing and business advice, and capital raising.
Mr Drury was named PricewaterhouseCooper's entrepreneur of the year in 2006.
Xero is in the middle of an $18 million initial public offering, then plans to list on the NZSX.
International Business Wales (IBW) vice president for New Zealand, Rhodri Jones, said Xero was a great example of a Kiwi company taking up the challenge of the global economy.
Formerly known as the Welsh Development Agency, IBW is the only British agency with a permanent presence in New Zealand and has helped nearly 500 overseas firms base their operations in Wales.
