Lime IPO: Trading Begins in Shares of the Uber-Backed Ride-Hailing Service

Pre-market trading in shares of Lime, an Uber-backed electric bike and scooter rental company, has begun on the Freedom trading platform for clients. Lime’s listing will be a major test of investors’ willingness to invest in a startup operating in an industry with high operating costs and regulatory barriers, Reuters notes. Later on July 1, Lime’s shares will be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LIME.

Lime raised $167 million in its IPO. It sold 6.68 million shares at $25 each, right in the middle of its previously announced price range. Based on the results of the listing, the company’s total valuation can be estimated at $1.6 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The transaction was organized by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Jefferies, Evercore ISI, Citizens JMP, and KeyBanc Capital Markets.

The ride-hailing service Uber has been partnering with Lime since July 2018, serving as an anchor investor. Following the coronavirus pandemic, Uber invested $170 million in Lime, according to Fast Company. This helped Lime acquire Jump—an e-bike and e-scooter sharing system previously owned by Uber. The IPO looks promising for Uber, which held 14 million shares of Lime prior to the listing, representing about 24% of the company, the publication notes. At the same time, Uber has expressed interest in purchasing up to $20 million worth of shares as part of the offering, according to the IPO filing submitted to the regulator.

According to the prospectus, Lime intends to use the proceeds from the initial public offering to finance its operations, repay all debts, and invest in or acquire additional technologies, assets, or intellectual property.

Lime, headquartered in San Francisco, was founded in 2017. It is currently led by Wayne Ting, a former top executive at Uber and senior policy advisor at the White House’s National Economic Council, according to Seeking Alpha.

With Lime, customers can rent electric bikes and scooters for short periods. The company’s signature green micromobility vehicles can be found in more than 230 cities across 29 countries, according to Bloomberg. The average trip length is less than 8 km, which helps reduce the burden on public transportation and roadways, writes Seeking Alpha.

“Lime was founded on a simple yet radical idea: people and cities deserve a future in which transportation is shared, affordable, and carbon-neutral,” Ting said in a letter to potential investors included in the company’s IPO filing.

In 2025, Lime’s revenue showed steady growth of 29.14%, reaching $886.7 million. At the same time, net losses for the same period increased much more rapidly—by 74.93%—to $59.3 million. In its prospectus, Lime stated that it had incurred net losses every year since its founding. The monthly active user base expanded by more than 20% in 2025 and now stands at 3.8 million people.

"The shares may trade at a discount because Lime's business is seasonal, heavily regulated, requires significant capital investment, and is subject to risks related to obtaining permits at the city level," said Lucas Mühlbauer, an analyst at IPOX Research, in comments to Reuters.

At the same time, he said, “Lime’s valuation does not appear to be overvalued, as the company is already a major global player that generates cash and has solid financial metrics, given its rapid revenue growth over the past three years.”

Lime competes not only with ride-sharing services like Third Lane Mobility, Bolt, and Lyft, but also with traditional taxis, public transportation, and autonomous vehicles—and the battle is over permits in each specific city, according to IPO Edge analyst Donovan Jones.

According to him, Lime’s main advantages remain its leadership in the U.S., its extensive presence in major global cities, and its full vertical integration, which allows the company to control everything itself—from scooter design to software and logistics. However, the business is highly vulnerable due to its dependence on local authorities, weather, seasonality, and the need for constant, significant expenditures.

As Jones points out, the main risk of an IPO is that virtually all the funds raised will go toward paying off old debts rather than toward growth, and attempts to expand into smaller cities could result in unprofitable growth.

Alem Bektemirov, an analyst at Freedom Finance, believes that at the current offering price, Lime’s stock has 15% upside potential. According to him, the key risks to the company’s business include intense competition in the micromobility sector, pronounced seasonality in demand, and regulatory barriers to obtaining permits from city authorities.

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Freedom clients will be able to access Lime shares before the main trading session opens. Trading will begin in the early pre-market session 2–3 hours before the U.S. markets open (from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Astana time). To participate, click on the LIME ticker.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor