Beacon by Citi
A gamified budgeting app that helps users establish better spending habits and keep track of their spending.
The need
It's easier than ever before to spend money, causing many people to experience anxiety and inertia when it comes to managing their finances. With so many demands on their time, people can find it challenging to prioritize and manage their spending. Many of Beacon's users do not have the time, motivation, or energy to understand their spending habits. In fact, many don't even know where to start.
The Solution
Beacon is a mobile app that motivates users to monitor their spending and build better financial habits. By providing actionable and easy-to-achieve weekly challenges, Beacon keeps track of what users spend while also helping them spend less every week.
Beacon does this by providing users with a holistic view of their spending, automatically capturing and categorizing transactions across accounts. From there, users can create fun weekly challenges that encourage them to build better spending habits and save money. For example, the “Big Lights, Small Budget” challenge is focused on curbing spending on entertainment. Beacon then guides users through the challenges by categorizing related spend and providing updates and motivation along the way.
At the end of each challenge, users can view their progress week-to-week and see that small actions can make a large difference.
The Founder
“D10X enabled me to take a simple insight from my own personal life and launch a solution in market that helps people. For me, that has been the most rewarding part of being a founder.”
Vice President, Citi FinTech & Co-Founder, Beacon by Citi, a D10X startup
The D10X Process
Beacon went through a rigorous, formal validation process to get to market. Before even a single line of code was written, the idea was tested with potential customers. Based on their feedback, the team rapidly iterated upon the solution to address existing pain points.
Throughout the development lifecycle, Beacon's features and functionality drew directly from customer input and internal expertise. Multiple teams across Citi, including technology, design, marketing, and research, helped define the solution. The Beacon team continues to make updates to the product to meet the ever-evolving needs of its users.