Yoto, a British company, designs play-based learning audio players for kids based on the concepts of Montessori education. Due to its lack of screens, parents are coming to love it more and more.
According to the Telegraph, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta and the man behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and many other internet-based companies, has embraced a world without screens.
Yoto, an award-winning business, is in the midst of a funding round led by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan through their charitable investing company, Chan Zuckerberg Ventures.
In this round, about $23 million (€21.45 million) has been raised; the Zuckerberg team and other new investors are thought to have contributed about $11 million (€10.3 million) of that total.
Yoto is a $182 million (€169.7 million) company that was started in 2015 by Ben Drury and Filip Denker.
Telling the story of how they began the business, they said: “We both had nagging concerns around the effects of excess screen time for young children, with potential negatives around sleep disruption, fine motor control development and addictiveness of screens making us think twice about putting our kids in front of a screen.”
However, they pointed out: “We’re actually both technophiles and big believers in the power of the internet and tech as a force for good.”
This viewpoint inspired the creation of the Yoto Player, an audio gadget designed for kids aged three to twelve.
The device, which may be used without a phone connection, has bluetooth capabilities.
The user can insert audio cards into the slot located at the top of the player. Then, in addition to playing music, it can read stories, podcasts, and other content.
Beatrix Potter, Roald Dahl, and Enid Blyton are among the authors who contributed. The Dahl family is among the investors in the startup.
The device’s creators purposefully refrained from utilizing a screen in favor of a simple color-changing pixel display.
While the effects of screen time on developing brains are still mostly unknown, some research indicates that prolonged use over time may cause issues with focus and sleep.
Yoto’s audio player was made without a camera, microphone, or advertisements, in contrast to a smart phone.
The company claims that this places kids “safely in control of their listening.”
Zuckerberg is not the only well-known figure to back Yoto; one of its initial investors was the former Beatle Paul McCartney.
The singer released Hey Grandude and Hey Nandude, two tracks off his new album, exclusively on the Yoto Player last year.
Approximately 10% of Yoto was purchased by Chan Zuckerberg Ventures last year; Vivian Wu, the managing partner of the fund, is a board member.