Lime raises $167 million in IPO after years of hype for its public debut

Micromobility Lime raised $167 million in its initial public offering.

The nine-year-old scooter and bike company, backed by Uber, sold 6.68 million shares at $25 a share, at the midpoint of the $24 to $26 price range. These shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the symbol “LIME” on Wednesday.

Lime has been thinking about going public for years. In 2021, following a $523 million funding round, CEO Wayne Ting told TechCrunch that the company was It is eyeing an IPO in 2022. He reheated the idea in 2023, saying Lyme is still waiting Correct market conditions.

The long-awaited IPO pegs Lime’s valuation at about $1.66 billion, just below the price that micromobility startup Bird took When it merged with a special purpose acquisition company In 2021.

Lime needs money. In its initial public offering filing in May, the company expressed “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern. Lime said it needs proceeds from the IPO to pay off roughly $1 billion in liabilities, more than half of which are due by the end of this year. Without an initial public offering, Lime told potential investors that it would need to find other sources of financing.

Lime has this financial advantage because the micromobility industry has proven to be fairly brutal over the past few years, even in good times. Bird had to file for bankruptcy protection and restructuring after it went public, and other competitors merged (Class and point), was delisted from the main stock exchanges (Micromobility.com) or stopped working completely (Super infantry).

Amid this chaos, Lime has been able to improve its revenue over the past few years. It earned $521 million in 2023, $686.6 million in 2024, and $886.7 million last year. The company also reduced its losses from $122.3 million in 2023, to only $33.9 million in 2024, although this number will rise again in 2025 to $59.3 million.

This growth has largely come from Lime’s ability to expand globally. It now operates in 230 cities in 29 countries. But the company is also somewhat reliant on Uber, which owns 24% of Lime and accounted for more than 14% of its revenue last year. (Uber allows people to book Lime rides through its app in some cities.)