Imagine this. A park in your neighbourhood that once served as a haven for children and families has fallen into dangerous disrepair. A few decades ago, the local media would have to report on the problem repeatedly before someone in authority took note and decided to do something about it (or not). But what if the locals could directly report their issues to the authorities?
Earlier this year, MDIF made its first investment from the MDIF Western Balkans Fund, backing City&Me, a Niš-based civic-tech startup that is rethinking how people interact with their cities.
The decision marked more than just a first deployment from the regional fund. It was another step in MDIF’s evolved investment philosophy which embraces public-interest information platforms that sit beyond the frame of traditional media but serve the same core purpose: enabling citizens to make informed decisions about their lives and take meaningful action in their communities.
At its heart, City&Me is a mobile app with a simple but powerful premise: everyday actions, like walking instead of driving, recycling or reporting a broken bench, can add up to lasting, visible change, making cities more livable for their citizens.
The platform uses a token-based reward system to nudge citizens toward sustainable behaviour and civic engagement. As users move through their cities on foot, by bike or via public transport, they earn digital tokens. These tokens can then be exchanged for real-world rewards, creating a closed loop of activity, recognition and impact.
Launched first in Niš, the app has already reached more than 25,000 users across Serbia and Montenegro and has now entered a new phase of growth with its launch in Belgrade.
In the capital, City&Me is not just rolling out the app, it’s launching a city-wide campaign. The initiative includes planting 1,300 seedlings in Surčin, a Belgrade municipality, with trees ‘earned’ by citizens through tokens gained from walking or cycling. “When a citizen steps out of their car and starts to see themselves not as a passive ‘resident’ but as another important and active ‘heartbeat of the city’, technology stops being just a tool and becomes a driver of change,” said Branko Krsmanović, CEO and co-founder of City&Me during the launch of the app in the capital.
For MDIF, investing in City&Me means backing a new generation of public-interest media, one that informs not just through stories, but through systems that help people live differently.
We spoke to Branko Krsmanović about the role of information in sustainable living, his thoughts on local news and more.
City&Me is a unique idea that merges technology, information and civic engagement into one platform. Apart from providing a bridge between authorities and citizens, City&Me also has a vertical that provides five local news items to users every day. What is the role of information in making cities more livable?
City&Me represents a two-way communication between the city and citizens, with the possibility of raising awareness of civic participation by incentivizing users through walking, cycling and recycling. Users receive tokens for these activities that they use to get tickets to the theatre, cinema, a tree in a local park or other benefits from our partners.
Also, in the 5news project, we reward users if they read at least five different news stories during the month on different days. In this way, we encourage not only civic activism but also timely daily information to citizens about their environment in order to give them the opportunity to change it with their small steps.
The problem we have noticed is the lack of communication between city and citizens, which we hope to partially solve with our platform. Today, in the cities where we have implemented the project, we have up to 30% of the total population using the City&Me platform, which encourages us to expand our influence in other territories and cities.
What is the role of local news in City&Me’s vision and mission? And what is the business model for it to be sustainable?
Local news is at the heart of our mission and the City&Me project itself. Through our media portal 5vesti, we want to strengthen the connection between citizens and their cities. Presenting short local stories, which users receive every day, City&Me becomes not only a tool, but also a daily habit. For us, news is an emotional and practical link that keeps users interested and engaged.
Our business model is based on partnerships with local media, cities and commercial partners who recognize the value of hyper-local reach, trust and engagement. Also, the token and reward system, as well as the in-app store, enable additional monetization and sustainability models.
You have just entered into an agreement with Colab.re from Brazil. Could you tell us about the role that collaboration plays in your organization’s growth, and what will the collaboration with Colab specifically be about?
With the support of MDIF and your recognition, we managed to talk with colleagues from Colab.re [a citizen-to-government engagement platform that is also an MDIF client] at two major events in San Francisco and Belgrade. We have a lot of similarities but also a lot of differences, but we believe that we can complement each other’s projects. Their focus is on cities and ours on citizens. Of course, it is necessary to have both sides for a successful project in one territory. In the coming period, we will exchange knowledge and experience and try to jointly perform on different markets around the world.
You have been actively engaging with our Media Business Advisor Luciana Cardoso to create AI tools customized for your organization. What role do you think AI and technology in general will play in the future for civic-tech/media platforms?
The biggest benefit we have in cooperation with MDIF is the people employed there and the consultants who help us better understand our product and capabilities. AI is something we needed to understand from the perspective of our small startup with big challenges. Luciana thoroughly organized our study visit to the innovation ecosystem in Silicon Valley, from visiting Stanford University, working with excellent consultancies, to participating in INMA’s big AI conference in San Francisco. We have defined in the next 100 days what we can change in the work of our company through AI, based on the application of AI in the Call Centre and research and definition of the content that we market through 5vesti. We managed to make a serious action plan, and we hope to come out with completely new functionalities in the next 60 days.
This article is a part of our special 30th anniversary coverage.