Lime begins life as a public company after years of uncertainty

Micromobility company Lime has raised $167 million in its IPO, ending an almost decade-long run as a private company that saw wild valuation swings as it navigated multiple major hype cycles and a global pandemic. 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. 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. “Having that resilience and patience and belief and optimism that we will get through the toughest moments [has] really paid dividends over the long run, because there were many days, weeks, months, where I wasn’t sure if Lime was going to make it past the next three months, four months,” CEO Wayne Ting told TechCrunch in an interview Wednesday. “To be here today as a public company feels incredibly rewarding, and it took a lot of, a lot of heart, sweat, and tears to get to this point.” 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 . …