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Startup launches ‘free’ Citi Bike-like umbrella-sharing app in NYC

NY POST | Jan 1, 2022

A new umbrella-sharing startup is expanding in New York City — and says it will do for umbrellas what Citi Bike did for bicycles.

Rentbrella, an app that was first launched in Brazil in 2018, is setting up automat-like kiosks stocked with 100 umbrellas each across the Big Apple — and rentals are free for the first 24 hours.

Under the Citi Bike-like system, New Yorkers use Rentbrella’s phone app to scan codes that allow them to unlock and return umbrellas at different kiosks — a service aimed at commuters who find themselves in a pinch and don’t want to shell out $10 or $15 for a bodega parasol, according to co-founder Freddy Marcos.

“Our model is very simple” Marcos told The Post. “They take an umbrella, they go home, then the next day they return it.” A new umbrella-sharing startup is expanding in New York City — and says it will do for umbrellas what Citi Bike did for bicycles.

Rentbrella, an app that was first launched in Brazil in 2018, is setting up automat-like kiosks stocked with 100 umbrellas each across the Big Apple — and rentals are free for the first 24 hours.

Under the Citi Bike-like system, New Yorkers use Rentbrella’s phone app to scan codes that allow them to unlock and return umbrellas at different kiosks — a service aimed at commuters who find themselves in a pinch and don’t want to shell out $10 or $15 for a bodega parasol, according to co-founder Freddy Marcos.

“Our model is very simple” Marcos told The Post. “They take an umbrella, they go home, then the next day they return it.”

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