International law firm CMS has advised leading growth-stage venture capital firm Acton Capital as lead investor on the $17 million Series A funding for Yoto Limited, creator of Yoto Player, the young children’s audio platform. Other investors in the funding round included JamJar Investments, Global Founders Capital, Emerge Education and MPL Ventures.
The investment, which closed in January 2021, followed the successful launch in early 2020 of the 2nd generation Yoto Player. Since the 2020 launch, Yoto has experienced explosive growth, securing partnerships and content deals with trusted household names such as LEGO and Disney as well as licenses with Penguin Random House, Sony Music, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan and more. The Series A funding is expected to facilitate Yoto’s rapid growth across Europe and North America, as well as enable it to develop more of its own content.
Since 1999, Munich-based Acton Capital has been supporting digital pioneers on their way to market leadership and has, to date, funded over 80 companies across Europe and North America.
Mark Bertram, Partner at CMS, commented: “We are really pleased to have helped Acton and all stakeholders in this successful first institutional funding round for Yoto. The business is deservedly on a fast growth trajectory, boosted in the last year by further demand for a compelling audio platform for children’s content. It was particularly good to work on this with the team at Acton, having already helped them in the last 24 months with their lead participation in the Series B financing of Elder Technologies and the Series C funding round for MPB Group.”
Fritz Oidtmann, Managing Partner at Acton Capital, said: “We are looking forward to backing Yoto’s vision of making its kids-centered, high-quality audio platform available to families around the globe. The professional and purpose-driven support by Mark, Toby and the CMS team was again a great help to make this happen. Thanks to deep expertise and the international footprint, CMS is always a dedicated partner and trusted advisor for our multi-national investments.”
The CMS team advising on the deal was led by partner Mark Bertram and included Toby Lovett and Catherine Little (Corporate); Elijha Wong (IP); Anna Soilleux-Mills and Ed Roper (TMT); Samantha Love (Employment); Ellie Pardy (Employee Incentives); and Valentina Keys and Ben Collins (Environment and Product Compliance).
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