'Brain training' pioneer for PLUS

09/08/2007 Robert Tyerman

MindWeavers, an Oxford University spin-off with software to alter brain functions, plans to raise £1 million on PLUS.

Founded in 2000 by neuroscientist Professor David Moore of Nottingham University, MindWeavers has already raised £558,000 privately through City and Merchant Group. That followed the company’s acquisition of BrainBoost, a company set up by Oxford pharmacology professor Baroness Susan Greenfield, which develops software to protect against cognitive decline.

MindWeavers creates and sells software to exercise-specific areas of the brain to improve human performance by design. Professor Moore originally discovered that many children with language impairments had problems perceiving simple sounds and MindWeavers’ first product, the Phenomena computer game, trains children to distinguish between sounds, automatically adjusting to each child’s level.

Now, following the BrainBoost acquisition, the company is poised to launch MindFit, a ‘brain exercise’ computer game targeted at baby boomers wishing to keep their minds in order to slow, delay and protect against the effects of ageing. The intention is to move to PLUS next year.