Micromobility company Lime has raised $167 million in its IPO.
The nine-year-old scooter and bike company, which is backed by Uber, sold 6.68 million shares at $25 each, at the mid-point of its $24 to $26 price range. Shares started trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker “LIME” on Wednesday afternoon, jumping around 9% in the first hour.
Lime has been considering an IPO for years. In 2021, following a $523 million funding round, CEO Wayne Ting told TechCrunch the company was eyeing an IPO in 2022. He re-heated the idea in 2023, saying that Lime was still waiting for the right market conditions.
The long-awaited IPO pegs Lime’s valuation at around $1.66 billion, just shy of the price fellow micromobility company Bird got when it merged with a special purpose acquisition company in 2021.
Lime needs the funds. In its IPO filing in May, the company expressed “substantial doubt” that it could continue as a going concern. Lime said it needs the IPO proceeds to pay around $1 billion in liabilities, more than half of which is due by the end of this year. Without an IPO, Lime told prospective investors, it would need to find other sources of financing.
