Tech firm raises $1.5m from crowd sourcing

Technology start-up Global Kinetics Corporation has completed what is said to be Australia's largest crowd equity funding exercise.

A health technology start-up has raised $1.5 million in what's been billed as Australia's largest equity crowdsourcing exercise.

Global Kinetics Corporation (GKC), which collects data on patients with Parkinson's disease through a device similar to a wristwatch, raised the funds from local and international investors via crowd funding platform OurCrowd.

OurCrowd sourced the money from 55 investors, half from overseas, and says the fundraising was the biggest of its type in Australia.

The move comes as Treasurer Joe Hockey said in last week's federal budget the Abbott government would look to make it easier for start-ups to secure funds through crowdsourcing.

GKC managing director Andrew Maxwell said the firm had chosen to crowdsource new funds because it was more efficient than traditional methods.

"CEOs and managing directors like myself do hundreds and hundreds of hours of pitching to investors and the outcomes of those pitches are often very variable," he said.

"But with this platform we were able to have our opportunity put up on a platform ... so it was one pitch, many investors."