Lime begins life as a public company after years of uncertainty

Micromobility institution Lime has raised $167 cardinal successful its IPO, ending an astir decade-long tally arsenic a backstage institution that saw chaotic valuation swings arsenic it navigated aggregate large hype cycles and a planetary pandemic.

The nine-year-old scooter and motorcycle company, which is backed by Uber, sold 6.68 cardinal shares astatine $25 each, astatine the mid-point of its $24 to $26 terms range. Shares started trading connected the Nasdaq banal speech nether the ticker “LIME” connected Wednesday afternoon, jumping astir 9% successful the archetypal hour.

The long-awaited IPO pegs Lime’s valuation astatine astir $1.66 billion, conscionable shy of the terms chap micromobility institution Bird got when it merged with a peculiar intent acquisition company successful 2021.

“Having that resilience and patience and content and optimism that we volition get done the toughest moments [has] truly paid dividends implicit the agelong run, due to the fact that determination were galore days, weeks, months, wherever I wasn’t definite if Lime was going to marque it past the adjacent 3 months, 4 months,” CEO Wayne Ting told TechCrunch successful an interrogation Wednesday. “To beryllium present contiguous arsenic a nationalist institution feels incredibly rewarding, and it took a batch of, a batch of heart, sweat, and tears to get to this point.”

Lime has been considering an IPO for years. In 2021, pursuing a $523 cardinal backing round, CEO Wayne Ting told TechCrunch the institution was eyeing an IPO successful 2022. He re-heated the thought successful 2023, saying that Lime was inactive waiting for the right marketplace conditions.

Ultimately, though, Ting said helium lone wanted to spell nationalist erstwhile helium could beryllium to the marketplace that Lime was a acold much durable institution that 1 similar Bird.

“We felt similar we needed to show we were going to beryllium a self-sustaining, profitable, escaped currency travel affirmative business, and that lone happened implicit the past 3 years, [where] we had 3 years of escaped currency travel affirmative results,” helium said. “I deliberation the timing is right, due to the fact that the concern is strong. We inactive person a batch of maturation up of us.”

Lime needs the funds. In its IPO filing successful May, the institution expressed “substantial doubt” that it could proceed arsenic a going concern. Lime said it needs the IPO proceeds to assistance resoluteness astir $1 cardinal successful liabilities, much than fractional of which is owed by the extremity of this year, though immoderate of that indebtedness is convertible. Without an IPO, Lime told prospective investors, it would request to find different sources of financing.

Lime is riding that fiscal borderline due to the fact that the micromobility manufacture has proven to beryllium reasonably brutal implicit the past fewer years, adjacent successful the bully times. Bird had to record for bankruptcy extortion and restructure aft it went public, and different competitors person either merged (Tier and Dott), been delisted from large exchanges (Micromobility.com), oregon gone retired of concern wholly (Superpedestrian).

Amid the chaos, Lime has managed to amended its gross implicit the past fewer years. It generated $521 cardinal successful 2023, $686.6 cardinal successful 2024, and $886.7 cardinal past year. The institution besides trimmed its losses from $122.3 cardinal successful 2023, to conscionable $33.9 cardinal successful 2024, though that fig edged backmost up successful 2025 to $59.3 million. (The institution reported adjusted gross nett successful 2025 of much than $400 million, erstwhile discounting costs similar depreciation.)

That maturation has travel mostly from Lime’s quality to standard globally. It present operates successful 230 cities crossed 29 countries. But the institution is besides somewhat babelike connected Uber, which owns 24% of Lime, and accounted for much than 14% of its gross past year. (Uber allows radical to publication Lime rides done its app successful immoderate cities.)

Ting said Lime’s absorption connected driving down portion costs, positive its quality to usage bundle and instrumentality learning to negociate city-by-city operations are what helped lime make a much financially sustainable business. And helium said helium lone expects those advantages to amended present that Lime has entree to the nationalist markets.

“It’s much superior for america to put successful maturation and expanding Lime, successful investing backmost into our technology. I consciousness similar a batch of the advantages that we person being the lone skilled operator, the lone profitable operator, is lone going to amplify present that we’re public,” helium said. “It’s a existent crippled of inches business, and we’re perpetually looking for this 1%, 2% improvement.”

Ting besides said helium believes being a nationalist institution volition promote much cities to spouse with Lime.

“I cognize a batch of cities don’t similar the information that they sometimes would bring an relation into the marketplace and that relation volition spell retired of concern successful six to 12 months. They privation a semipermanent sustainable partnership, and present that we’re public, our financials are disposable to immoderate metropolis regulator looking to determine who’s going to beryllium a bully semipermanent partner,” helium said.

This communicative has been updated with accusation astir Lime’s banal starting to trade and from an interrogation with CEO Wayne Ting.