What Citizen does

Citizen, operated by sp0n, Inc. and headquartered at 197 Grand St, New York, is a mobile-first public safety platform that delivers real-time, geo-targeted incident alerts, live community video, and crowdsourced verified reporting to consumers, while separately selling enterprise alerting and asset-visibility tools to organizations and public safety agencies. Its core technology stack combines a proprietary AI-enabled processing layer that ingests multiple streams of verified 911 dispatch data and converts them into routed alerts, a computer-vision pipeline that handles user-broadcast video, and human-in-the-loop review to vet every notification before distribution. The product surface comprises the free Citizen app, the Citizen Premium subscription (live police and emergency radio audio, historical incidents, registered offender searches, customized radius, family plan), Citizen Enterprise (Citizen Alert employee alerting and Asset Visibility & Location Mapping), and a journalist tier.

Citizen monetizes through a freemium consumer subscription model (Free, Citizen Plus, Premium on monthly or annual cadence with a 30-day free trial), recurring enterprise and municipal partnerships (including the official NYC Public Safety account reaching 3M+ residents, and the Axon Fusus integration that embeds Citizen inside public safety agency workflows), and a usage-based Live Broadcasting program that pays users up to $400 per eligible incident broadcast — a model that simultaneously drives engagement and content supply. Distribution is product-led via the Apple App Store, Google Play, and direct download from citizen.com, supplemented by an enterprise field-sales motion targeting municipalities and a community-led motion for geographic expansion. As of 2026, Citizen reports 20M+ downloads, 9M+ active users across 60+ U.S. cities plus Canada and Mexico, and 10B+ real-time alerts sent, with named flagship municipal partnerships in NYC, Pittsburgh, Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Tijuana. The company is privately held and has raised approximately $133M in disclosed funding, with most recent disclosed round a $50M Series 3 in January 2021 led by Greycroft.

Name

Citizen

Legal name

sp0n, Inc.

Website

https://www.citizen.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Citizen is a mobile public safety platform that delivers real-time, geo-targeted incident alerts, live community video, and crowdsourced reporting to consumers, and sells enterprise alerting and asset-visibility tools to municipalities and organizations in 60+ U.S. cities, Canada, and Mexico.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Public Safety Software

NAICS

Investigation and Security Services (5616)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Remote Video Monitoring Services (Live/Virtual Guard) (HSAHACAB)

Keywords

• Public safety alerts
• Incident reporting
• Real-time alerts
• Community safety app
• Emergency notifications

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Premium Subscriptions: Citizen operates a freemium model with subscription tiers. Premium features include live police and fire radio clips, historical incident access, registered offender searches, customized alert radius, and family plan sharing. Subscriptions auto-renew monthly or annually.
2. Citizen Plus: Entry-level paid tier with additional features beyond the free version.
3. Live Broadcast Compensation: Users can earn up to $400 per eligible live broadcast by going live on the platform and streaming incidents. Earnings can be cashed out at any time.
4. Enterprise Partnerships: Partnerships with municipalities and public safety agencies through Citizen Enterprise, including official NYC Public Safety account and Axon integration.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Citizen provides a mobile public safety platform that delivers real-time, geo-targeted incident alerts, live community video streams, and crowdsourced verified reporting (fires, severe weather, missing persons, crimes in progress) by processing multiple streams of verified 911 data through proprietary AI technology. The free core app is monetized through Citizen Premium subscriptions (live emergency radio audio, historical incidents, registered offender search, customized alert radius) and complemented by Citizen Enterprise offerings (Citizen Alert, Asset Visibility & Location Mapping) sold to municipalities, public safety agencies, and large organizations.

Product overview

Citizen is a unified public safety mobile platform operated by sp0n, Inc., combining a free core app with subscription premium tiers and enterprise solutions. The core Citizen app provides real-time location-based incident alerts, live community video streaming, and crowdsourced verified incident reporting for fires, weather emergencies, missing persons, and crimes in progress. Citizen Premium (formerly Citizen Protect) adds live police/emergency radio audio, historical incident access, registered offender searches, and customizable alert radius. Citizen Enterprise extends the platform with Citizen Alert (employee alerting system) and Asset Visibility & Location Mapping for organizational situational awareness, integrated with Axon Fusus for public safety agencies. A journalist platform tier serves media professionals. The platform uses AI-enabled proprietary technology processing 911 data streams for real-time alert generation, with international expansion covering Canada and Mexico alongside 60+ U.S. cities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Citizen Premium: Premium subscription service featuring live police and fire radio clips, historical incident access, registered offender searches, and customized alert settings.
• Citizen Alert
• Asset Visibility & Location Mapping
• Citizen Protect

Products and services

• Citizen (Core App) Free real-time public safety mobile app providing location-based incident alerts, live video streaming from community users, and community-powered verified incident reporting for active fires, severe weather, missing persons, and crimes in progress. Targeted at urban and suburban residents who prioritize personal safety.
• Citizen Enterprise Platform B2B platform providing organizations with real-time incident alerts, employee safety notifications, historical incident analysis, mobile notifications, and Axon Fusus integration enabling verified public safety agencies and first responders to share updates directly.
• Citizen Alert Employee alerting system within Citizen Enterprise that delivers real-time safety notifications to organization members for active fires, severe weather, missing persons, and crimes in progress, improving organizational situational awareness and operational efficiency.
• Asset Visibility & Location Mapping Enterprise tool enabling organizations to monitor asset locations and map safety incidents across facilities or operational areas, enhancing organizational situational awareness.
• Citizen Journalist

Quantifiable outcome

• Alerts sent up to hours before Amber Alerts are issued
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability8 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core, regional and flagship.

• Mexico City GovernmentcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2026Citizen expanded to Mexico in April 2026, launching in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Tijuana. The app is fully localized in Spanish with one-tap access to Mexico's 911 emergency number and Protect Mode for location sharing with trusted contacts.
• Guadalajara Municipal AuthoritiesregionalStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2026Partnership with local public safety agencies in Guadalajara for real-time safety alerts and community reporting, with features tailored for local safety needs.
• Tijuana Municipal AuthoritiesregionalStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2026Partnership with local public safety agencies in Tijuana for real-time safety alerts and community reporting, with features tailored for local safety needs.
• 15 U.S. City GovernmentsregionalStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2026Expansion into 15 new U.S. metropolitan markets including Denver-Aurora-Centennial, Las Vegas, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Boise City, Madison, Akron, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Ogden, Reno, Huntsville, Santa Rosa-Petaluma, Naples, Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, Salem, and Savannah. Millions of new residents gained access to location-based safety alerts and live video streams.
• New York CityflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2025NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced the city launching an official NYC Public Safety account on Citizen in July 2025. City agencies including NYPD, FDNY, and NYC Emergency Management provide real-time safety alerts through geo-targeted notifications. Agencies access incident footage submitted by users. Watched by over 3 million NYC residents.
• PittsburghregionalStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2025Citizen app launched in Pittsburgh on June 20, 2025, to inform public about safety incidents through crowdsourced data. Partnership with local emergency services with emphasis on transparency.
• AxoncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Strategic partnership announced in 2025 connecting Citizen with Axon Fusus, Axon's real-time operations platform used by public safety agencies across the country. Select verified partners can send official alerts directly to Citizen users, and public videos from Citizen are integrated into secure platforms trusted by responders nationwide. This partnership builds a more informed, responsive, and transparent safety network.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Nextdoor: Hyperlocal community network that surfaces neighborhood safety, crime, and incident reports. Closest direct competitor in the community-safety app category with overlapping target users (urban/suburban residents) and freemium consumer model.
• Noonlight: Personal safety app offering one-tap emergency response and connected device integrations. Comparable personal-safety platform with subscription tiers and emergency dispatch integration; was acquired by Apple.
• Life360: Family location-sharing and personal safety app with paid tiers (memberships, location history, crash detection). Comparable B2C freemium safety app targeting families and urban consumers, including Protect Mode-style functionality.
• Neighbors by Ring: Ring's neighborhood watch app for sharing crime and safety video and alerts. Directly comparable in the community-driven, real-time public safety category, backed by Amazon's distribution.

Broad incumbents

• Ring: Amazon-owned home security company offering video doorbells, cameras, and the Neighbors app. A broad incumbent in connected home/public safety with overlapping distribution to Citizen's target users.
• ADT: Established home and business security provider with professionally monitored systems and emergency response. A broad incumbent in the safety and security category that Citizen indirectly competes with for consumer safety spend.
• Motorola Solutions: Public-safety and enterprise technology incumbent (CommandCentral, Rave Alert) selling mass-notification and situational-awareness tools to police, fire, and governments. Direct overlap with Citizen Enterprise's B2B/government positioning.
• Axon: Public-safety technology incumbent (Fusus, TASER, body cameras) that is both a Citizen partner (Axon Fusus integration) and an adjacent competitor in the public-safety alerting and evidence ecosystem.

Emerging players

• PulsePoint: Nonprofit emergency-response app surfacing nearby cardiac arrests and fires to trained responders. Overlaps with Citizen on real-time public-safety alerting and integration with public-safety data, but focused on CPR/medical response.
• Flock Safety: Public-safety technology provider of license-plate-reader cameras and gunshot detection for law enforcement. Comparable in serving police/public-safety agencies with real-time situational awareness, but hardware-led rather than app-led.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/citizenapp

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds10 records

Investors18 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Citizen