Furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is a potential platform chemical in polymer industry for manufacturing polyester, polyamides and polyurethanes. Here, we introduced Li2CoMn3O8as an efficient catalyst for the selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF) to FDCA with 80% isolated yield in a gram scale reaction. The nanocrystalline spinel Li2CoMn3O8 catalyst was synthesized by gel pyrolysis method using urea and citric acid as complexing agent. The catalyst was characterized using PXRD, BET, ICP-MS and TEM. The catalyst is cheap and easy to prepare. The use of naturally abundant oxygen as oxidant results to high isolated product yield making this procedure scalable.