MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name

Kecon

One-line solution summary.

Kecon is a personal finance app that assists Cambodians age 18-30 to save money for a big purchase.

What is your solution?

How this works is users will set up their account on our app by stating their goal, how much money they would need to achieve their goal, and the percentage of their income they would like to transfer into their savings account. After the user links their bank account into the app, Kecon will notify users every time there is money inflow and to successfully transfer the money, the user will simply do a face ID or fingerprint scan. As a sense of accomplishment, every time the money increases in the savings account, a droplet of palm water drops into the palm bucket. The size of the droplet will depend on how much is being transferred to the savings (the larger the amount, the bigger the droplet), and users will easily see their progress when looking at the palm bucket.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

According to a survey done by ADB in 2017, Cambodia scored 11.5 out of 21, that is among the lowest in 30 countries that were being surveyed. As well as data from the 2015 Global Financial Literacy survey, 18% of Cambodian adults were considered financially literate. Since Cambodia was in a historically recent genocide and participated in civil war, Cambodia is a developing country. Hence, not many people are financially educated. Although economic growth is one of the fastest, there is still a gap in financial literacy because financial education is mostly taught at the university level rather than middle school or high school prior to many people entering the workforce.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Our target population are young (16-25) low-income people who weren’t exposed to financial literacy, especially those living in the suburbs or outskirts of the city. Because they didn’t receive as much financial education, we hope to slowly introduce to them the concept of saving money through our app. Because of the flexibility and convenience, as well as the familiarity of design to their living environment, the app will be able to encourage them to save money wisely.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

So far, I have done some online research on the targeted users.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving financial and economic opportunities for all (Economic Prosperity)

Our solution's stage of development:

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

I think concept is the best description of the solution's stage of development because more research needs to be done and the app prototype has yet been made. It is mostly an idea that can potentially turn into an actual product and a business model.

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Team Lead:

Kanneka Bunthuon