Scaling Global Growth with Unified Business Systems
For Yoto, the children’s audio platform renowned for its screen-free Yoto Player and Yoto Mini, a pivotal moment arrived as the business expanded internationally. Founded in London in 2017 by Ben Drury and Filip Denker, Yoto was conceived with a clear mission: to provide children with access to high-quality audio experiences without the distractions of screens. Since its successful Kickstarter launch in 2019, Yoto has grown rapidly, extending its reach across the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and France, and surpassing £100 million in annual revenue by 2025.
However, behind this rapid expansion lay increasing operational complexity. As Ben Averis, CFO at Yoto, describes, the company was managing “all kinds of different tools” to handle content, subscriptions, finance, and operations across multiple regions. This fragmented approach made it difficult to consolidate financial data, maintain consistency across markets, and respond swiftly to changing demands. To sustain its growth trajectory, Yoto recognised the need for a more unified operational approach.
The Strategic Shift to NetSuite
Yoto’s transition to NetSuite was a strategic move central to its ambition of creating a single source of operational truth. By integrating financial and operational data into a unified platform, Yoto gained real-time visibility across its global operations, which empowered faster decision-making and stronger governance. This transformation enabled the company to streamline its processes, accelerate reporting cycles, and improve forecasting accuracy—critical capabilities for a fast-growing, international business.
With NetSuite, Yoto was able to automate financial processes and gain deeper insights into inventory and supply chain management, allowing it to respond more effectively to fluctuating demand. This operational foundation proved essential in maintaining agility and scalability as the company expanded.
For Averis, embedding robust controls early in the company’s growth was crucial. He notes that in many fast-paced businesses, governance is often sidelined in favour of rapid innovation. At Yoto, governance was integrated into everyday operations rather than treated as a separate function. This approach allowed the company to meet audit requirements confidently and build a scalable foundation without the need for costly overhauls later.
“By building strong controls into our systems, we’ve been able to move quickly while maintaining oversight,” Averis explained, highlighting how this balance supports sustainable growth.
Harnessing AI to Enhance Productivity
More recently, Yoto has explored how artificial intelligence can further boost operational efficiency. Leveraging the NetSuite AI Connector Service to link Claude—the AI assistant—to its NetSuite data, Yoto has accelerated tasks such as reporting and analysis. What previously took hours can now be accomplished in minutes, democratizing access to critical insights across the organisation.
Despite embracing AI, Yoto maintains a thoughtful and deliberate approach to its application. “On the creative side, we are of course focused on world-class human-made content first and foremost,” Averis says. “But on the business operations side, in finance and operations, we are using it. We’re trying to connect as many systems as possible and give as much context as we can to the tools available.”
This balanced approach ensures that while AI enhances productivity, human expertise remains central, particularly in governance and financial oversight. Finance teams continue to play a key role, applying critical thinking to validate AI-generated outputs and maintain necessary controls.
By combining a unified business management system with a measured AI strategy, Yoto is building a scalable, resilient business model. With NetSuite as its operational backbone, the company is not only keeping pace with its rapid growth but positioning itself to stay ahead of future challenges.
For more detailed insights on how Yoto achieved this scalable global business transformation with NetSuite, read the full article here.
