NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release
Contact:                                                                                              

John J. Alexander, Chairman
John@TCAngels.com
www.TCAngels.com

Twin Cities Angels Makes Investment in Minnesota Start-up Recon Robots, Inc.
Minnesota-Based Angel Group Has Invested in 8 Minnesota Companies since inception

MINNEAPOLIS, (July 27, 2008) – Twin Cities Angels, LLC (“TCA”) today announced the closing an investment in Recon Robots, Inc.   Recon Robots represents TCA’s eighth investment in an early-stage Minnesota-based company since TCA’s first fund was launched in mid-2006. 

While details are not disclosed, TCA took the lion’s share investment in this $3.0 M Preferred round of financing.  Edina-based ReconRobotics Inc. has been formed to commercialize patented field-proven technology developed at the University of Minnesota Distributed Robotics Laboratory.  The company designs, manufactures, deploys and supports miniature, mobile robotic systems and distributed robotic teams that are used by the military, and federal and municipal law enforcement agencies.  These robots are specifically designed to save lives by providing real-time video reconnaissance about dangerous, hazardous or restricted environments.

"Twin Cities Angels is a very reputable, experienced and thorough organization, and we are excited to include them among our investors," says Alan Bignall, president and CEO of ReconRobotics, Inc. "They conducted their due diligence and investment process in a very professional and timely manner, and our entire team was very impressed by the depth of understanding that they had for our market sectors. We look forward to an exciting and mutually beneficial relationship as ReconRobotics continues to grow and develop new products."

John Alexander, co-founder and Chairman of the TCAngels said, “Our members have been pleased with the quality of companies we have been reviewing over the past two years and are enthusiastic about the investments made.  Even more importantly, we have shown that our Angel group business model is working both in the way our members can apply their individual talents to qualifying group investments and the value TCA is adding to the businesses we review and to those in which we invest.

Details about the most recent investments follow:

Previously, TCAngels had invested in UnityWorks Media, Placor, Ovation Science, Bard’s Tale Beer Company, Vixar, EcoEnvelops, and Alvarri.

Alvarri (no website yet) has created innovative solutions using a deduplication data compression technology which greatly reduces the amount of bandwidth and storage  required. Applications include endpoint backup, virtual image backup, disk to disk storage data and bandwidth reduction. Alvarri is a seed stage company created by the founders of Sistina, which was sold to RedHat.

EcoEnvelopes LLC (www.ecoenvelopes.com) is an environmentally conscious company with a proprietary line of reusable envelopes, label and postage concepts that reduce costs and benefit the environment with reusable, two-way postage solutions that increase revenue, profit margins, operational efficiencies and reduce costs while delivering real environmental benefits.

Vixar (www.vixarin.com) develops and manufactures high performance visible light lasers known as VCSELs, which enable significant performance improvements in products as diverse as medical sensors and diagnostic equipment, industrial and military sensors, home and vehicle networks, and office equipment. 

Bard's Tale Beer Company (www.bardsbeer.com) has developed and is distributing a craft beer that is gluten-free that has been acclaimed by beer fans and gluten-intolerant individuals that cannot drink conventional beers containing malt.

Ovation Science Inc. (www.ovationscience.com)has created a new product category around a novel technology that increased dissolved oxygen in water.  Focused on improving the natural ability of plant growth, the Company is the exclusive world wide licensee for a patented electrolysis technology and has launched products targeted at the $37 billion lawn & garden market.  Established in early 2006, Ovation Science located in Chanhassen MN has plans to launch additional products in both consumer and commercial markets.

PlaCor, Inc. (www.placorinc.com) , is a privately-held company that has developed a simple, easy-to-use, proprietary test for platelet reactivity called the PRT™.  Antiplatelet drugs, such as aspirin and Plavix®, reduce platelet reactivity and are prescribed to prevent heart attacks and strokes.  However, up to 50% of people may not respond to these drugs and are at an increased risk for an adverse event.  PlaCor’s PRT differs from other platelet reactivity tests in three important ways:  only a fingerstick blood sample is needed, total test time is less than 10 minutes and the test mimics how platelets are activated in the body.

UnityWorks Media (www.unityworksmedia.com )uses proprietary technology to create inexpensive, high-quality streaming video advertisements on the internet with an initial market focus on automotive dealerships.  Streaming video ads are placed on the dealer’s own website, on 3rd party websites such as carsoup.com, and embedded into e-mail promotions issued by the dealer or one-on-one from a salesperson to a known prospect. These videos are hosted by UnityWorks Media.  UnityWorks has developed an extremely cost effective and efficient platform for businesses to send powerful, media rich content to any personal computer regardless of configuration and bandwidth.

About Twin Cities Angels: www.TCAngels.com
Twin Cities Angels is a formal organization for entrepreneurially-minded member angel-investors.  TCA members have a mutual interest in having a high degree of personal involvement and interaction in angel investing.  All members are accredited investors with significant industry or functional expertise to contribute to the group.  TCA is principally interested in relatively early stage companies where the organization’s members can lead or participate in the formative stages of a successful business.  Based on their individual and collective expertise, TCA members are also committed to the organization’s mission of mentoring new companies by sharing their successful work experience and proven business judgment.  TCA’s investment and market focus is based on the members’ professional expertise, including but not limited to medical technology: devices, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, biotech, veterinary medicine; and Information Technology: software, hardware, and IT services.

TCA seeks deal flow in the greater Twin Cities Area of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the state of Minnesota and within a reasonable distance of the Twin Cities in Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas.  Members are educated in desirable investment skills: how to perform due diligence, deal flow creation, legal aspects of investing, term sheet key terms, the venture industry, technologies and other areas of specific interest to angel investors.  The membership-lead organization convenes regularly to meet with pre-screened companies regarding potential investments. 

More information about the Twin Cities Angels is available at www.TCAngels.com.