Last week Peak, a best-selling, subscription-based cognitive learning app, announced that publisher Hachette Livre has acquired a major stake in the company, allowing Peak to continue to grow and develop. Peak will work independently, and its original team of founders will run the operation out of London. Terms of the deal, including the investment by Hachette, have not been disclosed.

Peak was co-founded by Itamar Lesuisse, CEO, Sagi Shorrer, COO, Gerald Goldstein, CTO, and Xavier Louis, CPO started Brainbow in 2012 and launched Peak in 2014. The goal for the self-improvement app was to help users exercise their cognitive skills. Since its launch, Peak has been downloaded more than 15 million times. It was named Best App in 2014 by the App Store and Best Self-Improvement App in 2015 and 2016 by Google Play.

In an announcement by Hachette Livre, chairman and CEO Amaud Nourry said, “After Hachette UK acquired Neon Play in June 2016, the acquisition of Brainbow is another step in Hachette Livre’s mobile strategy. The co-founders are talented experts who will bring new skills to Hachette Livre. We are delighted to welcome them into the group.”

The co-founders added, “We are excited to join Hachette Livre and look forward to leveraging synergies with Hachette Livre around global distribution and contents. This move will help fuel the global expansion of Brainbow’s award winning app and its future products.”

In a blog post on Medium, Peak said, “The company is committed to expanding beyond books, and given its heritage in education and literature, it’s eager to support and develop intelligent digital entertainment. For us, this partnership allows us to stay true to our vision for Peak.”

Peak, available for iOS and Android devices, offers 24 games, ranging in difficulty with some of the exercises personalized for the user. The app can be downloaded for free, but the subscription to use it is $4.99 a month or $34.99 for 12 months, says Tech Portal.

According to Medium, ‘Peaksters’ have played more than 1 billion games and leveled up more than 124.8 million times, and they have a 4.5 star rating on both Google Play and the App Store.

News of the partnership with Hachette Livre comes following a successful 2016 for Peak in which they released 10 new games, launched in seven new countries – Japan, China, Korea, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and introduced Coach, a personal trainer for the brain. They also launched a new game, Turtle Traffic, as part of Apple’s Apps for Earth Day. In 2017, Peak plans to release more games and module.

Insider Take:

Brainbow and Peak seem to be successful as is, so the investment by Hachette must have given the company some capital it can use to further its plans for additional games and modules. In the Medium post, Peak alluded to the fact they will be branching out in 2017 to include activities in games in other areas outside of cognitive skills including getting enough sleep, eating right, socializing, managing stress and maintaining a clear mind. We are eager to see what they come up with next!