In addition to ClassDojo’s recent VC success this week, Lumosity has just raised $31.5M in series D funding for their cognitive exercise games. The round was led by Discovery Communications and a number of existing investors to bring Lumosity’s total funding up to about $70M. Lumosity’s cognitive exercise games were created to combat declining neurological functions that occur as a result of aging. The idea is that Lumosity’s games are treating the brain as a muscle: working out the muscle will strengthen it and prevent deterioration. Using games to strengthen brain power isn’t particularly new though.
Parkinson’s patients have experimented with the Nintendo Wii for treatment and Brain Age was a 2006 Nintendo DS brain training title which sold 19M copies worldwide. Using video games as a means to promote cognitive health has been wildly experimented on but one study published in Nature shows that it simply doesn’t work. Improvements in cognitive game performance actually translate into a better performance in the playing of these games and not actual cognitive performance outside of them.
Lumosity’s cognitive benefits are backed by a number of peer-reviewed studies, so their games’ credibility may still be viable, despite a potential for conflict of interest. However, the most interesting thing about Lumosity’s funding is that they are claiming to have:
“…the world’s largest database of human cognitive performance; and it analyzes this massive amount of data to learn more about the human brain.”
Lumosity has already said they will be using this data for marketing and branding. Are investors seeing Lumosity’s cognitive games as a breakthrough? Or is it a massive goldmine of neurological data for advertising? It will be interesting to see what Lumosity will do with this information as they continue to grow.
via TechCrunch
