With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1512670
Arya Rashtchian CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, OMNICART WHEN ASKED WHAT MIGHT'VE LANDED OMNICART ON the LOI map, Arya Rashtchian supposes that his accelerated pro- fessional background has something to do with it. "I moved here [from Tehran] five years ago, went through my graduate studies [in artificial intelligence at UBC] and started a business literally two years after moving to Vancouver," he says. "Everything in a short amount of time; maybe that was one of the things." Omnicart is a SaaS platform and delivery operating system based in Vancouver—"similar to Shopify, but specifically for on- demand delivery," says Rashtchian, who made our 30 Under 30 list in 2022. "[Co-founder Nader Samadyan and I] help the little guys in small towns by empowering them with the technology that all the bigger guys have access to." Since its launch in 2021, Omnicart has grown to 14 team members. It serves delivery companies with a fleet of drivers (like JackRabbit Deliveries) in more than 30 cities in Canada, the U.S. and Puerto Rico. That said, it's not easy to manage all the moving parts (a.k.a. stakeholders) that come with this business. "And the margins are pretty slim with food delivery," says Rashtchian, "so we're consid- ering pivoting towards catering." After months of conversations, Omnicart recently closed a seed funding round with $1.5 million in the bag. "It's a very, very, very tough market to raise money in," Rashtchian stresses. The investment was led by U.K.-based Foodhub (an online food order- ing platform), and should enable the company to explore new avenues, whether that's helping clients integrate with new point- of-sale systems or helping influencers offer on-demand delivery on their social media. "We're looking at creating a link for food influencers," says Rashtchian, "so if they're promoting a burger from a restau- rant, they can create a link, and consumers can click on it and purchase that item instantly." —R.R. [Co-founder Nader Samadyan and I] help the little guys in small towns by empowering them with the technology that all the bigger guys have access to. 39 BC BU S I N E S S .C A J A N U A R Y 2 0 24