As Michael Crossey puts it, it's ''buzzword bingo'' at Aepona, a Belfast software firm that has defied the economic gloom to complete a $10 million funding deal.

The firm last week brought in Blackberry Partners Fund, a Canadian firm with links to the Blackberry maker, as a new investor, while its existing backers also stumped up more cash in the fundraising drive.

They were attracted by the potential for Aepona's technology, which lets telecoms operators use their ''network as a service'' and also fits the trend towards cloud computing, according to Crossey, the firm's vice-president of marketing.

In simple terms, the company's software allows telecoms companies to open up their networks to the introduction of new services and applications - in much the same way as Apple allowed the creation of apps for its iPhone and iPad.

The technology is already used by more than 20 big phone companies to power 1.2 billion transactions a month, according to Crossey.

Behind the buzzwords, Aepona has been making commercial progress, with a 50 per cent rise in revenues to more than stg£14 million last year. It is predicting a further 50 per cent rise this year, bringing its revenues close to stg£21.5 million ($32 million).

That growth is being driven by geographic expansion, acquisitions and new business wins, including a seven-figure contract with a Canadian telco.

The company is also adding to its 180-strong workforce and expects be ''north of 200'' people within months.

Aepona has been in business for more than a decade, with its roots in Aldiscon, the Irish firm that pioneered text messaging and was bought by Logica in 1997. However, it has had to cope with a fall-off in spending by telcos, with the global downturn and the credit crunch.

Michael Black, the chief financial officer of Aepona, said the firm had had a very busy three years since the sudden death of its chief executive Isaac Olasoko in April 2007.

Black himself took the reins as interim chief executive for a period, and was followed by Brian Caulfield, a well-known figure in Irish technology and venture capital circles.

In Apr i l 2008, Aepona found a full-time chief executive in Al Snyder, a US-based tech veteran who had previously run American firm Carrier Access.

Hiring Snyder and two of his former Carrier Access colleagues, Mike Mayfield and Kevin Wagner, was a ''seminal event'' for the development of the company, according to Black.

''Al brought us a completely different perspective on business development, sales and marketing, and a level of executive contact we never had before," said Black. ' 'He reshaped the business and put an American front-end onto our engineering operations."

The company also took on senior staff through the acquisition last year of Valista, the Wicklow-based e-payments firm, and the buyout of some assets of Mobile Cohesion, a Belfast firm that went out of business in 2008. Richard McConnell, a technologist who co-founded Mobile Cohesion, is now chief technical officer at Aepona.

''Through the combination with Valista, we also got a substantial base in an offshore location, in Colombo in Sri Lanka. That was something we had been trying to do for a number of years," said Black.

Aepona now has about 70 staff in Colombo and a similar number in Belfast, with the remainder focused on sales and marketing in the US and Europe.

Following a capital restructuring in late 2008, which involved converting preference shares into ordinary shares, the company decided to target new funds late last year. It wanted a ''strategic investor'', and Blackberry Partners Fund fitted the bill, Black said.

''We are very pleased to have got it done in a very challenging environment and at a valuation everyone is happy with," he said, although he would not comment on the valuation.

The new funding brings Aepona's total backing to $65 million. The firm's other shareholders include big-name venture capitalists such as Amadeus Capital Partners, Polaris Ventures, Innovacom, Nordic Venture Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures.

Black said that the funding gave the firm the ''robustness'' to compete for large deals with telecoms firms. The company plans to build its sales and marketing capability, with an initial focus on the US and Europe, followed by the Middle East and Asia.

He does not expect Aepona to raise more funding, unless its sees opportunities for bolt on acquisitions that require relatively little integration. ''We have been profitable for three quarters, and will be profitable again this quarter," said Black.

He said that the firm had stg»2million in cash on its balance sheet at the end of last December and could now add the $10 million to that.

''We expect revenues of about $30 million this year from about 15 customers. But there are 400-odd operators across the world that we can sell to, and our focus now even goes beyond them. We feel this could get really big."