TechCrunch Mobility: Lime’s IPO gamble

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After years of hints and preparation, the Uber-backed electric bike and scooter rental company has taken off Lime submitted to Initial public offering. Small mobility company going public? In 2026? It’s definitely the wrong year.

Lime CEO Wayne Ting He’s been talking about an IPO for years. TechCrunch spoke to him about this in 2020, 2021, and 2023. It never materialized and I kind of forgot about it, until — boom — Exhibit S-1, the registration statement filed with the SEC, was published early Friday morning.

There are some interesting risk factors in the S-1, although we’re still waiting for Lime to share the terms of the offering.

Revenues are rising, it has positive free cash flow, and net losses are narrowing after 2023, although there will be a slight uptick between 2024 and 2025. Uber, which invested in Lime several years ago, continues to play an important role for the company. Lime said about 14.3% of its revenue came through its partnership with Uber, which allows customers to find and rent scooters and e-bikes through its app.

All of this suggests that Lime is a growth company headed toward profitability. But there are significant headwinds. Lime has about $1 billion in current liabilities, about $675.8 million of which are due by the end of 2026. In total, about $846 million is due within 12 months. Lime does not have enough liquidity to pay that, according to its filing. Lime states this clearly in its S-1: If it cannot go public and raise the necessary capital, or change its debt covenants, it may not be able to continue operating as a company.

Senior reporter Sean O’Kane, who likes to dig into the S-1 as much as I do, discovered some other tidbits into the risk factors. According to the company, cities’ investment in public road infrastructure is a risk factor. Lime specifically lists the pits, which made me laugh and then nod in agreement. Potholes are not kind to shared scooters.

Lime also warned that a significant portion of trips are concentrated in a relatively small number of markets in which it operates. One such market, which accounted for 22.2% of its revenue in 2025, is the UK

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last summer, Uber Announced a plan to launch a Excellent robotaxi service Using Lucid Gravity equipped vehicles Nuru Self-driving vehicle technology. This is more than just collaboration. Uber said it will invest $300 million in Lucid and separately buy “at least” 20,000 vehicles of the electric car maker’s new Gravity SUV over the next six years. Uber recently raised its investment in Lucid to 500 million dollars The order for the car was pushed to 35,000.

Details regarding Uber’s investment in Nuro, a private startup based in Silicon Valley, have been scant so far. At the time, we only knew that Uber had invested an undisclosed amount of “several hundred million dollars” in Nuro. Little Bird shared more details.

Uber’s total financial commitment to Nuro, which includes its participation in the startup’s Series E round last year and future milestone-based investments, is approximately $500 million, according to a source familiar with the deal.

My educated guess is that Nuru has just opened one of those attractions. The company is testing Lucid cars in self-driving mode with a human safety agent in the driver’s seat. Last month, it expanded testing to allow Uber employees to request a self-driving ride in a Lucid robotaxi with a human safety operator on board. But the company has just received two important announcements – A Driverless test permit From the Department of Motor Vehicles and a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosek at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com Or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

Offers!

Kodiak Artificial Intelligence Q1 earnings provide a case study of how difficult it is to commercialize frontier technology. The company announced a number of deals that showed progress. You have entered into a commercial contract with Roehl. Launched a pilot program to test autonomous trucks equipped with the Kodiak system at West Fraser Timber Company’s log hauling operations in Alberta, Canada; It announced its cooperation with military vehicle manufacturer General Dynamics Land Systems to create autonomous ground vehicles for defense applications.

But investors were not satisfied with its terms Capital increase of $100 million. The company sold its shares at $6.50 per share, a significant discount to its closing stock price of $9.10. The increase also included warrants — instruments that give investors the right to buy additional shares later at a specified price, in this case up to $6.

Funding came from existing backer Ares Management and several unnamed institutional investors.

Kodiak’s stock price fell 37% in after-hours trading after the financing and first-quarter earnings release. Shares have recovered slightly since then, perhaps as shareholders digested the news and viewed it from a glass-half-full perspective.

Kodiak will likely need more capital as it continues to burn cash as it heads toward its big goal: driverless trucking operations on public highways.

Other deals that caught my attention this week…

The energy of the momenta startup that has developed a new approach to reusing electric vehicle batteries, has achieved great success $40 million Series B funding round Led by Canadian venture capital firm Evok Innovations, with additional funding from grocery retail fund W23, joining existing investors such as Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm funded by the CIA.

Roxisa startup that has developed hands-free warehouse solutions for self-driving electric vehicles, It raised $13 million In an expanded Series A round led by Capricorn Partners, with participation from Scania Invest, Forward.oneand SEB Greentech Venture Capital and Graduate Venture.

Notable Readings and Other Stories

Aurora He started moving loads Driverless trucks In Texas for distribution giant McLane. The commercial contract shows some progress by the self-driving truck company. Disclaimer: These self-driving trucks still have human observers in the cab, and the company told us they can’t operate the vehicle.

Lucid First-quarter earnings revealed that the company is still feeling the effects of a supplier issue earlier this year that caused the Gravity SUV to be recalled and deliveries temporarily halted. The company, which is also going through a leadership transition, changed its guidance and said it was no longer certain How many electric vehicles will you build or sell this year?.

In 2024, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration He updated the new car evaluation program and added four new pass and fail evaluation tests Performance of advanced assistance systemsstarting in 2026. Finally, we see the results. Last release 2026 Tesla The Model Y is the first vehicle to meet the agency’s new standard.

eviction Is launching a new collection of Color lidar sensors That’s the CEO Angus Pacala He thinks it will replace cameras.

Starting the electric car List He lost a prominent board member. Head of Jeff Bezos’ family office He left the councilaccording to several state filings reviewed by TechCrunch.

Volkswagen It is now Rivian‘s Largest shareholderWhich pushed Amazon out of the lead.

Another thing…

Well, maybe two more.

Senior correspondent Rebecca Bellan He was interviewed Aurora Founder and CEO Chris Urmson Recently for a stock podcast. Listen to the episode here.

Finally, we ran a poll last week! Here’s what I asked readers: “The California DMV has issued new rules for autonomous vehicles. Self-driving trucks can now be tested and deployed in the state. Reporting, data collection and process requirements have been expanded and law enforcement can issue traffic tickets. These rules: exceed the limits, exceed the target, or are not restrictive enough.”

About 41% chose “I hit the mark,” while 27.6% said the rules go too far, and 31% said they are not restrictive enough.

To participate in our surveys, Sign up to get our mobility newsletter in your inbox!