"We set the Opengear company up some 18 months with a business plan based on building both open source software and open source hardware platforms - and so far it is going and growing well," Waldie said.

The company has an interesting set up. It is a US entity, but is an Australian company with its developers housed in its i.Lab office in Brisbane, said Waldie, whose previous ventures include Snapgear, Moreton Bay Ventures and Stallion.

"The executives all are Australian and we manage the business from Brisbane."

Of the shareholders, 82 percent are Australian with 18 percent held by a group of venture capitalists from the East Coast of the US, who provided some seed funding.

"So the wealth we create will remain here in Australia."