Museum Hack, the alternative private museum tour company that emphasises entertainment alongside education, has hinted at international expansion and further ambitious plans, following its sale by founder Nick Gray to its incumbent chief executive officer and director of marketing.

Gray started the company in New York in 2013, after a date at the Metropolitan Museum of Art led to the awakening within him of a sense of curiosity about the history of art. Along the way he has hired Michael Alexis and Tasia Duske into the team of more than 50 people that now work for Museum Hack across several cities in the US.

An announcement from the company now reveals that Gray has sold the company to Alexis (director of marketing) and Duske (CEO), who will proceed with big plans for its continuing development.

Since it started, Museum Hack has led tours for more than 100,000 guests, and given nearly US$1m (€900,000, £780,000) directly to its museum partners in admissions and other contributions. The tours, as Grey told Attractions Management in 2016, are based on "guides, games and gossip". They are aimed at keeping millennials, with one eye on their mobile phones, engaged in the museum experience through a fast-paced and fun tour.

As well as delivering tours in eight cities, Museum Hack also now provides training on its methods for attracting new audiences to museums around the world.

Duske said the company planned to grow and develop its "renegade" tours and training programmes, with international expansion, and a corporate programme to help museums develop new sources of funding, reduce costs and become more robust and sustainable institutions.

She also announced that there is a "Project X" in the pipeline, adding only that this is "one of the most ambitious plans we have to help support museums around the world".

Duske concluded: "I can't wait to unveil our new projects. We think we have some incredible new ways to bring needed funding and support to the museums we love and respect."