Zeal will make a "strategic investment" in the emerging cloud application development industry by purchasing a 49% stake in Twiik, an Auckland-based start-up specialising in tailored web-based software solutions for large-scale Kiwi businesses.

The New Zealand website design company says the investment in Twiik, pronounced Tweak, is a key part of growth plans for 2013.

“This is an exciting development for Zeald, which aims to complement our already strong position as New Zealand’s leading website development company," says David Kelly, CEO, Zeald.

"Together with Twiik, we will continue to help New Zealand businesses of all sizes thrive with market leading online solutions."

Kelly says the partnership enables Zeald to guide Twiik, with their thirteen-year market knowledge and expertise, and grow it as a complementary “sister company”.

Zeald will retain its own market focus on small to medium sized businesses, with the deal following the opening of a new company office in Christchurch earlier this month.

Founded by John Jones in 2008, Kelly says Twiik has many of the same commitments to value, transparency and delivering tangible results that are embedded in the Zeald DNA.

While much of Twiik’s work is behind closed doors as an outsource partner to other companies, its work includes both customer-facing and back-end development used by a number of large commercial and crown customers in New Zealand.