Lime's IPO gamble: how micromobility's last big name is plotting a path to public-market profitability
Micromobility company Lime has formally moved closer to an initial public offering by filing an S-1 document with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. It is being characterised as the largest IPO in the privately funded electric-scooter and bike sector in recent years. According to TechCrunch, Lime is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on a traditional New York Stock Exchange listing, currently targeted for the third quarter of 2026.
The S-1 lists Lime's 2025 revenue at 750 million dollars, an 18 percent increase on 2024. The company also posted positive operational net income for the first time, at 22 million dollars. In prior years Lime had reported average annual net losses of around 80 million dollars.
Lime's regional disclosure was striking: its European operations are around 20 percent more profitable than its US ones. The company is active in 35 European cities led by Paris, Berlin, London and Rome, with most municipalities having signed long-term operating contracts with Lime.
The US picture is more complicated. San Francisco, the city where Lime was founded, has imposed scooter caps over the last three years. Washington DC has imposed an additional 0.40 dollar per-trip fee on scooter operations, squeezing operator margins. Lime cited such local regulations as among the reasons profitability is under pressure in the United States.
On the competitive side, TechCrunch reminds readers that Lime has three main rivals: Bird (taken private and emerged from a 2024 bankruptcy reorganisation), Tier (Europe-focused; merger talks with Lime ended in 2024) and Voi (Sweden-based, still funded by private capital). Continued consolidation could leave Lime, within the next two years, as the sole market leader holding around 35 percent of the global micromobility market.
Investor appetite is contested. Two IPO analysts whom TechCrunch spoke to expect Lime to list at a revenue multiple of between 1.5x and 2x. That would imply a market capitalisation of between 1.1 and 1.5 billion dollars; in private capital terms, Lime peaked at a 2.4 billion dollar valuation in 2021. The IPO would represent a partial down round for existing investors.
Lime's chief executive, Wayne Ting, said in a letter included in the S-1 that proceeds from the IPO would be used in three main ways: investment in next-generation scooter fleets (the move to a "Gen 4" platform), investment in AI-powered fleet-management systems, and expansion into selected Asian markets. Ting specifically named Tokyo, Seoul and Mumbai as investment targets.
The future of the micromobility sector is closely tied to urban transportation policy. In Europe, climate targets and city-centre congestion charges are supportive of e-bike and scooter use. In the United States the picture is uneven: Manhattan and certain San Francisco neighbourhoods are scooter-friendly in practice, while Sun Belt cities issue limited permits.
Financial analysts say the success of Lime's IPO will depend on two things: that market conditions remain receptive in the second half of 2026, and that Lime sustains its "scalable profitability" story. The company has set an annual revenue target of 900 million dollars for 2026.
A further point made by TechCrunch concerns Lime's attempt to expand beyond electric scooters. In 2024 the company began experimenting with Lime Pods, small four-wheeled micro vehicles, with the first pilot in Paris's 11th arrondissement. The IPO document specifies that the Pods business is targeted to contribute up to 12 percent of revenue within the next three years. If that target is met, Lime would shift from being a single-product company to a multi-product mobility platform.