If there’s an unusual quiet coming from your children or grandchildren’s room this Christmas, it may not be a miracle – it may be a Yoto.
The £100 million-a-year British company behind this screen-free tech toy, which plays audiobooks and music to children, has enjoyed a stellar festive quarter.
Yoto, which was founded by two dads who didn’t want to raise iPad-clutching children, has sold twenty million of its cards this Christmas.
Bestsellers range from Harry Potter, Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo and Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters to the design-your-own adventure stories, and the Beatles’ and Abba music.
More than five million children worldwide now have a £90 Yoto player (or its £60 travel version) in their toybox.
They slide cards containing a small NFT computer chip – the same technology used in hotel door keys – into the audio player.
Screen free: Yoto, which was founded by two dads who didn’t want to raise iPad-clutching children, has sold twenty million of its cards this Christmas
It’s a simple concept: co-founder Ben Drury, 50, shows me a plywood prototype he made with a soldering iron and a laser cutter in 2013, and it’s still recognisable from those on the shelves of Argos and John Lewis today.
At the time, Drury had just made his first fortune after floating his first business, a digital music company, on AIM and then became a father for the first time.
He says: ‘I was thinking about what to do next. My co-founder Filip [Denker] and I were passionate about audio, and we realised audiobooks were amazing for children’s creativity.
‘But CDs and cassettes had disappeared, replaced by children having iPads and Alexa-type devices.
‘I was shocked when I went to John Lewis to shop for a pram and saw one with an iPad attachment built in.’
When Drury’s son started at a Montessori nursery, which emphasised independence and autonomy, ‘it all came together. We decided to create something tangible that allows children to access audio without a parent pulling out a smartphone.’
His children – who are now 12 and 10 – and their friends loved playing with ‘the ugly first prototypes – so we knew we were onto something.’
So it has proved. After an initial run of 850 units made by Pimoroni in Sheffield in 2018, Yoto scaled up.
Now made in factories in China, Vietnam and Thailand, revenues hit $4.9 million in 2020, when Yoto launched in the US, now its biggest market.
They quadrupled a year later and hit $127 million in 2024. In 2025, Yoto enjoyed ‘very high double digit’ sales growth, Drury adds.
The firm has been Ebitda profitable for the past three years, and has signed content deals with entertainment and publishing industry giants including Disney Pixar, Universal and Sony Music, and Penguin Random House.
The movement for a screen-free childhood – with public figures including the Princess of Wales arguing that smartphones mean children are ‘more isolated, more lonely, and less equipped’ – couldn’t have come at a better time for Yoto.
Sales hit: Yoto is a screen-free tech toy, which plays audiobooks and music to children, and has enjoyed a stellar festive quarter
‘We were a screen alternative from the start,’ says Drury. ‘Research showed too much screen time was harmful for children’s eyesight development, sleep and fine motor skills, and it’s creating addiction.
We don’t say ‘screens are bad’; we say audio is good. Listening is great for creativity and imagination.’ Yoto launched in Australia last July, with sales already making up 10 per cent of the company’s global turnover.
Now the country has banned under 16s from social media. ‘I’m not sure that ban directly affected demand, as it’s aimed at teenagers, but it helps the Yoto narrative,’ said Drury. ‘Australia is now one of our strongest markets.’
Indeed, the firm is a rare international success story in Britain’s history in the consumer electronics sector.
Yoto’s affinity with the growing campaign for a screen-free childhood has also lured high-profile backers. Sir Paul McCartney was one of the earliest to its cap table: ‘I knew someone running his family office through music industry contacts,’ explains Drury.
‘It took six months to meet him, and I have never been so nervous. But he was brilliant. He has invested three times, and continues to give great product and content suggestions.
Paul also helped us get the Beatles onto Yoto, which was very difficult with all the parties involved.’ Kids can now absorb an early musical education in Let it Be and Hey, Jude on two separate proprietary Yoto cards – for £11.99 a pop.
Mark Zuckerberg, who has limited his own children’s screen time, is another investor. The venture fund of the Meta founder and his wife, Priscilla Chan, backed Yoto’s $22 million fundraise in 2024.
It’s not the only US tech interest in Yoto: Drury says he receives takeover approaches ‘all the time – at least one a month.
Tie-ups: Yoto has signed content deals with entertainment and publishing industry giants including Disney Pixar, Universal and Sony Music, and Penguin Random House
From US tech companies, media companies and others in the kids’ space. But we’re focused on building Yoto independently. We’ve been EBITDA-positive for three years and feel like we’re just getting started.’
International growth is high on Yoto’s agenda – the player currently supports English, French and Spanish, but Drury wants to rapidly expand into Mandarin, Japanese and Arabic.
About 220 people work for the firm globally, with teams in London, New York, Australia, Singapore and China. But Drury is frustrated that most investors and acquiring interest come from overseas, rather than domestically.
‘The UK is a great place to start a company, but scaling is harder,’ he says. ‘I would love to see British pension funds doing direct investments into British companies.
‘We’ve been approached by some Canadian pensions funds, for instance, but it would be brilliant to see UK pension funds backing companies, rather than just through funds, or funds of funds.
‘Pension funds mostly invest in government bonds and infrastructure projects, but if they invested – even in much later-stage scaleups – it would be really beneficial.
‘I also think initiatives encouraging UK consumers to invest more in listed companies would be welcome. In America, everyone does it – everyone’s got a Robinhood app and is buying equities all the time.
‘That doesn’t happen so much here.’ As the London Stock Exchange struggles to attract IPOs, does Drury’s exit plan for Yoto involve a float?
‘Going public is quite onerous, with heavy regulation, reports and requirements, and quarterly reporting can force you to make short-termist decisions, when we’re trying to build something for the very long term.
‘But our main rival, [German kids’ audioplayer] Tonies is a public company listed in Frankfurt, so an IPO has to be on the cards at some point. I can’t say where that would be – the US is our biggest market, so it may make sense to list in the US.
But we’re a British company, so we would look at London seriously when the time came. Before that, though, we’ve got a lot of growing to do.’ And a generation of children are growing up with Yoto too.
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