Sky’s the limit for umbrella-sharing startup
UmbraCity eyes expansion in downtown Vancouver following successful 2015 pilot program at UBC
Vancouverites have a love-hate relationship with the umbrella. In light rain, the city’s most common weather, it’s hard to justify the hassle of carrying one around all day. If it suddenly starts to pour, one can rue the decision to leave home without it.
“This was a big frustration for myself,” said Amir Entezari, co-founder and CEO of UmbraCity. “I never had an umbrella when I needed one. When I took out an umbrella with me, it was a hassle. It doesn’t rain, so I had to carry it on along with me. I found myself in that situation a lot, personally.”
But with UmbraCity, Entezari and co-founder Babak Assadsangabi believe they’ve found a solution for the umbrella problem: an umbrella-sharing program. Think Car2go or Mobi, but for walkers.
“You can think of it as a bike-share for umbrellas,” said Entezari. “We have a fully automated kiosk where, whenever it rains, you can register to take out an umbrella and return it at any location, at any other kiosk, essentially.”
“It’s a network of umbrella rental kiosks.”
After a successful rollout at the University of British Columbia in the fall of 2015 — a perfect test case as “UBC was essentially a small version of a city,” Entezari said — UmbraCity is preparing to expand to downtown Vancouver. The company is on the hunt for businesses willing to partner with the startup and host an UmbraCity kiosk in their stores, something Entezari believes will have a positive effect on their partners’ bottom line.
Improved walkability, after all, means more customers.
“One of the problems in a rainy city like Vancouver is that walking traffic on rainy days is significantly reduced to retail, so having this system in their location, it draws more traffic,” he said. “For example, if you have a coffee shop, if you know that they can borrow an umbrella there or return an umbrella there, people go there, and it also opens up the opportunity for them to purchase something. That’s the value that we also bring to retail.”
UmbraCity plans to target financial districts like the Coal Harbour area and Georgia Street, as well as commuter and tourist-heavy streets like Robson.
“We’re starting the expansion with 20 kiosks, but I think in Vancouver we’re even gonna go up to 500,” said Entezari.
If he sounds confident, it’s not without cause. The pilot program at UBC went so well that UmbraCity found themselves with a demand problem almost instantly.
Non-students are likely to love it, too. Lost-and-founds citywide are overflowing with umbrellas — once the rain stops, many people would rather leave them behind than lug them home. A startup that encourages this leave-it-when-you’re-done behaviour seems a safe bet.
Entezari said UmbraCity is still in conversation with several business about their kiosks, but they hope to launch the downtown expansion in January or February.
“We’re hoping to catch the end of the rainy season,” he said.