Micromobility firm Lime has raised $167 million in its IPO, ending an virtually decade-long run as a non-public firm that noticed wild valuation swings because it navigated a number of main hype cycles and a worldwide pandemic.
The nine-year-old scooter and bike firm, which is backed by Uber, offered 6.68 million shares at $25 every, on the mid-point of its $24 to $26 value vary. Shares began buying and selling on the Nasdaq inventory alternate below the ticker “LIME” on Wednesday afternoon, jumping round 9% within the first hour.
The long-awaited IPO pegs Lime’s valuation at round $1.66 billion, simply shy of the value fellow micromobility firm Chicken obtained when it merged with a special purpose acquisition company in 2021.
“Having that resilience and endurance and perception and optimism that we are going to get by the hardest moments [has] actually paid dividends over the long term, as a result of there have been many days, weeks, months, the place I wasn’t positive if Lime was going to make it previous the following three months, 4 months,” CEO Wayne Ting advised TechCrunch in an interview Wednesday. “To be right here at the moment as a public firm feels extremely rewarding, and it took a number of coronary heart, sweat, and tears to get thus far.”
Lime has been contemplating an IPO for years. In 2021, following a $523 million funding spherical, Ting advised TechCrunch the corporate was eyeing an IPO in 2022. He reheated the thought in 2023, saying that Lime was nonetheless ready for the right market conditions.
Finally, although, Ting stated he solely needed to go public when he might show to the market that Lime was a much more sturdy firm than one like Chicken.
“We felt like we would have liked to show we had been going to be a self-sustaining, worthwhile, free money stream constructive enterprise, and that solely occurred during the last three years, [where] we had three years of free money stream constructive outcomes,” he stated. “I believe the timing is correct, as a result of the enterprise is powerful. We nonetheless have a number of development forward of us.”
Lime wants the funds. In its IPO submitting in Might, the corporate expressed “substantial doubt” that it might proceed as a going concern. Lime stated it wants the IPO proceeds to assist resolve round $1 billion in liabilities, greater than half of which is due by the tip of this yr, although a few of that debt is convertible. With out an IPO, Lime advised potential buyers, it could want to search out different sources of financing.
Lime is driving that monetary edge as a result of the micromobility business has confirmed to be pretty brutal over the previous few years, even within the good occasions. Chicken needed to file for chapter safety and restructure after it went public, and different opponents have both merged (Tier and Dott), been delisted from main exchanges (Micromobility.com), or gone out of enterprise solely (Superpedestrian).
Amid the chaos, Lime has managed to enhance its income over the previous few years. It generated $521 million in 2023, $686.6 million in 2024, and $886.7 million final yr. The corporate additionally trimmed its losses from $122.3 million in 2023, to only $33.9 million in 2024, although that determine edged again up in 2025 to $59.3 million. (The corporate reported adjusted gross revenue in 2025 of greater than $400 million, when discounting prices like depreciation.)
That development has come largely from Lime’s potential to scale globally. It now operates in 230 cities throughout 29 international locations. However the firm can also be considerably depending on Uber, which owns 24% of Lime and accounted for greater than 14% of its income final yr. (Uber permits folks to ebook Lime rides by its app in some cities.)
Ting stated Lime’s give attention to driving down unit prices and its potential to make use of software program and machine studying to handle city-by-city operations are what helped Lime create a extra financially sustainable enterprise. And he stated he solely expects these benefits to enhance now that Lime has entry to the general public markets.
“It’s extra capital for us to spend money on development and increasing Lime, in investing again into our know-how. I really feel like a number of the benefits that we now have being the one expert operator, the one worthwhile operator, is barely going to amplify now that we’re public,” he stated. “It’s an actual recreation of inches enterprise, and we’re always in search of this 1%, 2% enchancment.”
Ting additionally stated he believes being a public firm will encourage extra cities to accomplice with Lime.
“I do know a number of cities don’t like the truth that they generally would carry an operator into the market and that operator will exit of enterprise in six to 12 months. They need a long-term sustainable partnership, and now that we’re public, our financials can be found to any metropolis regulator seeking to determine who’s going to be long-term accomplice,” he stated.
This story has been up to date with details about Lime’s inventory beginning to commerce and from an interview with CEO Wayne Ting.
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