We meet the man behind Yoto: How Ben Drury got kids dreaming of a screen-free

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,  he says ‘it all came together’. 

He adds: ‘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 profitable, as measured by Ebitda, 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. 

‘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.’ 

Sales hit: Yoto is a screen-free tech toy, which plays audiobooks and music to children, and has enjoyed a stellar festive quarter

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 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…