Research suggests that older adults in particular can benefit from playing games that improve memory, concentration and problem solving. Today, Lumos Labs is announcing it has raised $3 million in venture capital from Pequot Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and existing investors. The money will go to its brain game web site, Lumosity.com.
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Scanlon said that subscriptions are growing about 25 percent each month. The company previously raised its first round of capital of $400,000 from angels in October, 2006.
The competition is heating up. Michael Cole, CEO of Vivity Labs in Vancouver, Canada, said that brain games got a huge boost from Nintendo, which sold 26 million copies of BrainAge and Big Brain Academy. The Fit Brains site has 10,000 beta testers. The average session is 25 minutes. About 125,000 games have been played to date since March. The company has nine employees.
Before running Vivity, Cole worked at Happy Neuron, another brain game company. Another competitor is Posit Science, which targets assisted-living residents with CD-ROM based games. All of these gaming companies try to strike a balance between entertainment and science-based education. Cole says his company has hired professional game developers so that it can ensure that its games are fun.
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