York Angel Closes Investment with Top Hat Monocle

Online, September 7, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Toronto, Ontario -- York Angel Investors (YAI) today announced it has closed financing on Top Hat Monocle, an agile start-up located in the Waterloo Research and Technology Park in Waterloo. Top Hat Monocle develops a unique platform for interactive learning in the classroom called monocleCAT.

"The York Angel Investors had a positive response to the momentum Founders Mike Silagadze and Mohsen Shahini have achieved with their product and business model," said Scott MacCannell, President, YAI. "There is growing adoption for the Top Hat Monocle learning platform with professors and university communities across Canada and the United States presently."

"We look forward to increasing our marketing efforts with the financing we received from York Angels," said Mike Silagadze, Co-Founder and CEO, Top Hat Monocle. "And also, importantly, we welcome the mentorship and experience from our new Board members, Tim Lett and Doug Osborne both members of York Angel Investors."
Maple Leaf Angels also contributed to the investment process in collaborating with York Angel Investors in the due diligence phase preceding the investment in Top Hat Monocle.

Following extensive market research and product development, Top Hat Monocle is preparing for a full production release of monocleCAT, a unique platform for interactive learning in the classroom.

The inspiration behind monocleCAT was the realization that mobile devices, such as smartphones, (including Blackberry, iPhone, and Google Android), tablet devices (like the new iPad, and netbooks) have become increasingly more powerful, more affordable and in wide enough use, that it made sense to allow educators to take advantage of their capabilities and power in the classroom.

The early prototypes of monocleCAT have been extremely well received by instructors and students. After a period of refinement and testing, the system was first launched widely in September 2010.

About Top Hat Monocle

For more information regarding Top Hat Monocle please see www.tophatmonocle.com.

About York Angel Investors

The York Angels are a group of accredited investors with a broad range of professional experience. Their individual and group focus is to create a return on investment for themselves and the businesses with which they work. Their involvement provides entrepreneurs with funding, and importantly advisors who counsel portfolio companies and their entrepreneurs, based on experience gained through their own successes on how to expedite and manage growth.

YAI's portfolio companies benefit from our member expertise in information and communications technology, , internet, online applications, enterprise and SaaS software, retail, alternative energy and healthcare and pharmaceutical. The collaborative mentorship approach and strategic financing supports entrepreneurs through various stages of early growth. These critical investments often represent the bridge between the self-financed or seed stage and the venture capital and/or private equity level of funding.

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For more information please contact:
Marilyn Schaffer
416-400-5629
[email protected]