Lime raises $523 million in oversubscribed round
Leading global funds ADG, Fidelity, Highbridge and Uber provide fresh capital, propeling Lime on its mission to provide shared, affordable and carbon-free transportation through its industry-leading Gen4 e-bikes and e-scooters
We’re thrilled to announce we’ve closed an oversubscribed round of $523 million in a mix of convertible debt and debt financing that will help us achieve our purpose of building a future where transportation is shared, affordable and carbon-free. It will allow Lime to continue to grow from a position of strength.
With this new funding, we will continue to bring our best-in-class Gen4 electric bikes and scooters to more cities globally and extend access to more communities in need of sustainable transportation options. We will also use a portion of the funding to pursue innovation that will further decarbonize our supply chain, ensuring we’re always putting the most sustainable hardware on the road to help decarbonize transportation in cities more broadly.
“This oversubscribed round is a testament to the strong business we’ve built and the overwhelming confidence we’ve received from the financial community,” said Lime CEO Wayne Ting. “This investment secures our path to take Lime public in 2022 and will allow us to double down on our newest generation of e-bikes and e-scooters, as well as additional modes, to ensure people have reliable access to affordable, shared, carbon-free transportation."
Lime continues to lead the micromobility industry by every measure.
In 2021, we reached nearly twice as many monthly active users as our closest competitor (source: App Annie) and now lead the industry in observed sales in both Europe and the US (Bloomberg Second Measure). Over the summer, riders surpassed 250 million rides--a micromobility record--helping us extend our total rides served well beyond other micromobility providers.
We’re now the largest operator on both continents, thanks to our strong focus on working with cities to win permits in major European cities like London and Paris, as well as in key US cities like New York and San Francisco. Our city-first approach marries our global experience with a hyper-local focus to help our city partners achieve their goals and meet the needs of residents. It’s how we’ve built an unmatched track record of winning, retaining and expanding city permits, including in the largest micromobility markets in the world, to achieve a fleet of over 200,000 vehicles, the largest global fleet in the industry.
$20 million from new funding will go toward Lime’s 2030 net zero goal
$20 million from this latest funding will go toward achieving this goal by advancing sustainable hardware initiatives and developing a low carbon supply chain, all consistent with meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Accord to keep global temperatures to 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels--the most ambitious global target. Last week, we celebrated the approval of our company-wide carbon target to be net zero by 2030 by the Science Based Targets Initiative, the most stringent corporate standard in the world. We’re now the first micromobility company to set a science-based carbon target for Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, which does not account for carbon offsets, but requires deep engagement with our third-party partners to actually cut emissions from the entirety of our supply chain. The target is independently validated and will be tracked annually by the Science Based Targets Initiative.
“Through the scale of its fleet, the efficiency of its operations and its ability to work with cities, Lime continues to prove that it is the global leader in micromobility, said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber. Everyone at Uber has been impressed by Lime’s ability to consistently improve its balance sheet, and we’re confident that this leadership team has the vision and ability to take Lime to new heights, as cities and their residents increasingly rely on bikes and scooters for local travel.”
“Micromobility continues to have an expanding role in cities, as regulators increasingly look for ways to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions,” said Greg Najarian of UBS O’Connor. “Lime has won prized permits in major U.S. and European cities, and we are thrilled to be supporting the largest operator in the space.”
2021 milestones, by the numbers
We grew significantly in 2021 as city residents sought safer, open-air modes of transportation. We launched operations for the first time in more than 80 cities this year, expanding our global footprint to more than 200 cities. As part of our strategy to be a multi-modal operator, we became the first provider to significantly scale e-bikes, reaching nearly 50 cities globally; we also introduced a third mode and welcomed third-party partners onto the Lime Platform for the first time, each helping to improve the availability of electric vehicles and capture demand for a wider variety of trip types in more cities.