Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have snapped up a stake in a British start-up developing a screen-free audio player for children that has enjoyed booming popularity with parents.
The Facebook billionaire’s family office, Chan Zuckerberg Ventures, joined an £18m funding round for Yoto – whose other shareholders include Sir Paul McCartney – that develops the Yoto Player.
A Yoto spokesman said around $11m (£8.6m) in fresh cash came from the Facebook founder’s fund and other new investors – with further funding coming from existing shareholders in addition to secondary share sales. The deal values Yoto at $182m.
Yoto’s music speakers feature cards that children can slot into the gadget to listen to audio versions of popular children’s books, such as the novels of Julia Donaldson, Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton, as well as stories from child-friendly franchises such as Paw Patrol.
The player, which costs £90, has no screen and says it puts children “safely in control of their listening” with “no microphones, no cameras, no ads”.
Founded in 2015 by Ben Drury and Filip Denker, the company says its simple-to-use music players can put children as young as three in charge of what they want to listen to, with “no more handing over your smartphone or worrying about intrusive ads”.
Mr Drury has previously said he founded the company due to “nagging concerns around the effects of excess screen time for young children” and was inspired by Montessori school principles to create the device. Yoto reported sales of £27.7m in 2022, according to its latest accounts.
Chan Zuckerberg Ventures quietly backed Yoto late last year, taking roughly a 10pc stake in the business. The fund’s managing partner, Vivien Wu, has joined its board.
The fund is part of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic organisation set up by the couple, who have pledged to give 99pc of their Facebook shares over their lifetime.
Mr Zuckerberg’s net worth is $179bn, according to Bloomberg data, making him the fourth richest person in the world, and is almost entirely down to his shareholding in Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
The deal comes amid mounting parental anxiety over children’s screen time and social media use, with data from media regulator Ofcom showing that almost a quarter of children under the age of seven have their own smartphone.
The data also showed that around half of children under the age of 13 used some form of social media, despite them nominally being banned from having accounts on most apps.
Concerns over children’s screen time have led to demands from grassroots organisations such as the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign to restrict access to phones for under-16s.
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