# Lime

**Source:** https://geo.sig.ai/brands/lime  
**Vertical:** Transportation  
**Subcategory:** Mobility Services  
**Tier:** Emerging  
**Website:** lime.com  
**Last Updated:** 2026-04-14

## Summary

Micromobility operator with shared e-scooters and bikes in 200+ cities; $1B+ raised from Alphabet and Uber with ~$750M annual revenue and EBITDA profitability after Bird's 2023 bankruptcy exit.

## Company Overview

Lime is a micromobility company operating shared electric scooters and bikes in 200+ cities across five continents — providing app-based short-trip urban transportation for commuters, tourists, and city dwellers through a pay-per-ride or subscription model that cities have adopted as part of their sustainable transportation infrastructure. Founded in 2017 in San Mateo, California as LimeBike, Lime raised over $1 billion in total funding from Alphabet (Google Ventures), Uber, Bain Capital Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz, generating approximately $750 million in annual revenue and achieving EBITDA profitability in key markets.

Lime's electric scooter fleet operates on city permits — Lime bids for operating licenses in each city, deploys fleets of GPS-tracked scooters on public streets, and uses a mix of in-house operations teams and freelance "Juicers" for battery charging and rebalancing. The LimeBike app handles unlocking, riding, payment, and parking guidance. Lime has survived the early micromobility shakeout (Bird, the other major scooter company, filed for bankruptcy in 2023) partly through stronger city relationships and more disciplined capital deployment.

In 2025, Lime competes in the urban micromobility market with Spin (Ford-owned), Voi (European scooter operator), and TIER (European, merged with Dott) for city electric scooter and bike-share permits. Bird's 2023 bankruptcy removed a significant US competitor and validated Lime's survival advantage. The micromobility industry's viability depends on city permit renewal, hardware durability (scooter lifespan economics), and insurance costs — all challenges that the early industry largely underestimated. Lime's EBITDA profitability in key markets demonstrates the business can work at scale with the right operational discipline. The 2025 strategy focuses on deepening market position in profitable city markets, expanding the e-bike fleet that generates higher revenue per trip than scooters, and building the city partnership relationships that secure permit renewals.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What is Lime?
Lime Lime serves cities as shared electric scooter and bike platform, $510M valuation following 2017 Brad Bao founding with Toby Sun in San Francisco

### When was Lime founded?
Lime was founded in 2017 in San Francisco, California. Brad Bao and Toby Sun founded Lime in San Francisco in 2017 as dockless bike and e-scooter sharing platform, pioneered micromobility with Uber investment reaching $510M valuation across 250+ cities globally.

### What are Lime's major milestones?
Lime's history includes several key milestones: 2017: Lime Founded San Francisco 2019: Series D $2.4B Valuation Peak 2021: Down Round $510M Valuation 2024: Micromobility Platform 250+ Cities

### What is Lime's mission?
Lime's mission is to Build a future where transportation is shared, affordable, and carbon-free.

### Who founded Lime?
Lime was founded by Brad Bao. Entrepreneurs who pioneered dockless scooter sharing

### What products or services does Lime offer?
Lime Lime serves cities as shared electric scooter and bike platform, $510M valuation following 2017 Brad Bao founding with Toby Sun in San Francisco

### Who uses Lime?
Lime Lime serves cities as shared electric scooter and bike platform, $510M valuation following 2017 Brad Bao founding with Toby Sun in San Francisco

### How does Lime work with cities to obtain operating permits and manage scooter deployment?
Lime operates under permits granted by city transportation departments that typically specify fleet size caps, parking zone requirements (often designated corrals or dockless rules), pricing constraints, equity zone requirements in underserved neighborhoods, and data-sharing obligations using the Mobility Data Specification (MDS) standard. Lime employs local government affairs teams to negotiate and maintain permit renewals in each market, and its city management platform allows municipalities to set geofenced speed limits and no-ride zones in real time. Cities like Paris and San Francisco have used permit renewal processes to reduce the number of scooter operators and consolidate the market.

## Tags

b2c, platform, transportation, global, supply-chain

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*Data from geo.sig.ai Brand Intelligence Database. Updated 2026-04-14.*