Yoto Secures an Additional $22M Funding To Accelerate Its Mission of Bringing the Best Children’s Audio Content to Children Worldwide

London – Yoto, the audio platform for kids behind the critically acclaimed and award-winning Yoto Player and Yoto Mini, announced it has raised $22 million in equity funding to help facilitate rapid global growth. The investment was led by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with significant participation from DNS Capital. Yoto’s existing shareholders, Acton Capital and Burda Principal Investments, provided additional support during the latest funding round.

The investment closed in October 2023 following the successful summer launch of the 3rd Generation Yoto Player and rapid growth since its introduction in 2020. In 2022, Yoto drove an impressive revenue growth globally and has ambitious future forecasts. This new investment will be used to fund Yoto’s continued growth, including expansion into new global markets, continuous product improvements and extension of the content library and of the Yoto Originals publishing arm of the business; overall, fueling Yoto’s mission to enhance early childhood learning, bringing a new level of independence to foster the development of young minds worldwide.

“We’re excited to support the team at Yoto and their innovative products to help young children develop their curiosity, creativity, and listening skills,” said Vivian Wu, Managing Partner of Ventures at CZI. “This investment will help increase access to these beloved products to more schools, allow the team to conduct more research, and expand their educational content library.”

Since launching Yoto Player in early 2020, Yoto has grown in popularity across UK, France and North America, securing partnerships and content deals with trusted household names, such as Disney, as well as licences with Penguin Random House, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan and more. Yoto’s extensive and ever-expanding content library contains some of the world’s greatest children’s content suitable from birth to 12+. The catalog is now over 1,200 cards strong and includes C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia and all of the Roald Dahl stories, modern classics from Julia Donaldson, David Walliams and Tom Fletcher, as well as beloved family characters like Peppa Pig, PAW Patrol, Daniel Tiger and Sesame Street.

In an effort to offer audio that will inspire the next generation of independent creative minds, Yoto has consistently invested in content that promotes mindfulness, meditation and sleep. Regular software updates, such as the introduction of child-friendly alarms and free timer tracks for brushing teeth and tidying up, all programmable within the Yoto App, have helped hundreds of thousands of families improve the rhythms of everyday life. More recently, Yoto has also begun launching classic music albums in Yoto card format, including Queen: Greatest Hits Volume 1 and more recently The Beatles Red and Blue albums. In addition, the Yoto Player has a ‘Make Your Own’ function enabling users to link to their favourite radio stations or podcasts and record their very own stories.

“At Yoto, we have a vibrant culture of innovation. This new investment will not only help further the expansion of our best-in-class team that is at the forefront of driving growth across markets and products, but also provide the resources to develop our trusted ecosystem that brings value to so many families around the globe,” said Ben Drury, CEO and co-founder of Yoto. “While we focus on adapting, evolving and expanding our offerings, our commitment to fostering independence and inspiration for children through listening, learning and play remains at the heart of all we do and is core to continuing our trajectory of sustainable growth.”

For more information, please visit https://us.yotoplay.com / https://eu.yotoplay.com / www.uk.yotoplay.com.

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About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded in 2015 to help solve some of society’s toughest challenges — from eradicating disease and improving education, to addressing the needs of our communities. Through collaboration, providing resources and building technology, our mission is to help build a more inclusive, just and healthy future for everyone. For more information, please visit chanzuckerberg.com.

About Yoto
Yoto is an interactive audio platform for kids. Yoto offers over 1,000 audio titles from the world’s greatest creators spanning stories, songs, activities, and more to inspire creative play and learning without a screen. The carefully connected audio players – the Yoto Player and the Yoto Mini – put kids safely in control. No cameras. No microphones. No ads.

Inspired by Montessori principles, Ben Drury and Filip Denker founded Yoto in 2017. The very first Yoto Player launched on Kickstarter, then promptly sold out in 2019. The second generation Yoto Player was designed with renowned design agency, Pentagram, and launched in early 2020. The brand’s portfolio continued to grow with subsequent product launches, including the portable Yoto Mini and Yoto Player (3rd Generation).

Now available worldwide, Yoto have won awards and accolades from critics, parents and children alike. Yoto Mini was named as a winner in Good Housekeeping’s 2022 Parenting Awards, TIME Magazine named Yoto Player one of the Best Inventions of 2020, and Yoto Mini won a prestigious D&AD Pencil in 2022.