Hachette Livre acquires a majority stake in mobile app company Brainbow Ltd, makers of Peak

Hachette Livre is announcing today that it has acquired a majority stake in Brainbow Ltd, the London-based British mobile app company.

Co-founders Itamar Lesuisse, Sagi Shorrer, Gerald Goldstein and Xavier Louis started Brainbow at the end of 2012. In 2014, Brainbow launched the self-improvement app, Peak, a subscription-based service specifically designed to entertain while helping users exercise their cognitive skills.

Since its creation, Peak has been downloaded over 15 million times around the world and has built a robust mobile digital subscription business. Apple named it a Best App in 2014 while Google Play chose it as the Best Self Improvement App in 2015 and 2016. Peak is a Future Fifty company and the winner of the Europas award.

Arnaud Nourry, Chairman and CEO of Hachette Livre, 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 said: “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.”

Isabelle Magnac, Executive Vice-president of Hachette Livre said: “Brainbow’s founders have proven they know how to create and run a successful subscription-based mobile app. I’m happy to welcome Brainbow to my team and look forward to working with such a talented group of people to further grow the business.”

Brainbow Ltd will continue to be based in London.

• Download Peak here.