TechCrunch Mobility: Lime’s IPO gamble

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After years of hints and preparation, the Uber-backed electrical bike and scooter rental startup Lime filed for an initial public offering. A micromobility firm going public? In 2026? Absolutely it’s the unsuitable 12 months. 

Lime CEO Wayne Ting has been speaking about an IPO for years. TechCrunch spoke to him about it in 2020, 2021, and 2023. It by no means materialized and I kind of forgot about it, till — growth — the S-1 doc, the registration assertion filed with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee, posted early Friday morning. 

There are some fascinating threat components within the S-1, though we nonetheless are ready for Lime to share phrases of the providing.

Income is climbing, it has constructive free money movement, and web losses narrowed after 2023, though there was a slight uptick between 2024 and 2025. Uber, which invested in Lime a number of years in the past, nonetheless performs an necessary position for the corporate. Lime mentioned about 14.3% of its income got here by way of its partnership with Uber, which permits clients to search out and hire scooters and e-bikes by way of its app.

All of this means Lime is a development firm headed towards profitability. However there’s one substantial headwind. Lime has about $1 billion in present liabilities, and about $675.8 million of that’s due by the tip of 2026. In all, about $846 million is due inside 12 months. Lime doesn’t have adequate liquidity to pay that, in keeping with its submitting. Lime states it plainly within the S-1: If it will probably’t go public and lift the mandatory capital, or change its debt agreements, it could not be capable to proceed working as a enterprise.

Senior reporter Sean O’Kane, who likes digging by way of an S-1 as a lot as I do, noticed another tidbits within the threat components. Funding by cities of their public highway infrastructure is a threat issue, in keeping with the corporate. Lime particularly lists potholes, which made me chuckle after which nod in settlement. Potholes usually are not variety to shared scooters. 

Lime additionally warned that a good portion of rides are concentrated in a comparatively small variety of markets by which it operates. One such market, which accounted for 22.2% of its income in 2025, is the U.Ok. 

A bit chicken

Final summer season, Uber introduced a plan to launch a premium robotaxi service utilizing Lucid Gravity autos geared up with Nuro’s autonomous car expertise. That is greater than a collaboration. Uber mentioned it will make investments $300 million in Lucid and would individually purchase “no less than” 20,000 of the EV maker’s new Gravity SUV over the following six years. Uber lately raised its funding in Lucid to $500 million and pushed the car order to 35,000. 

The small print about Uber’s funding in Nuro, a privately held startup primarily based in Silicon Valley, have been slim — till now. On the time, we solely knew that Uber invested an undisclosed “multi-hundred-million-dollar” quantity into Nuro. One little chicken has shared extra particulars. 

Uber’s whole monetary dedication to Nuro, which incorporates its participation within the startup’s Sequence E spherical final 12 months and future milestone-based investments, is almost $500 million, per a supply acquainted with the deal. 

My educated guess is that Nuro simply unlocked a type of milestones. The corporate is testing the Lucid autos in autonomous mode with a human security operator within the driver’s seat. And final month it expanded testing to permit Uber workers to request an autonomous trip in a Lucid robotaxi with a human security operator nonetheless on board. However the firm simply acquired two important permits — a driverless testing permit from the Division of Motor Automobiles and a allow from the California Public Utilities Fee.

Received a tip for us? Electronic mail Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Sign at kkorosec.07, or e-mail Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

Offers!

Kodiak AI’s first-quarter earnings presents a case examine for a way difficult it’s to commercialize frontier tech. The corporate introduced a lot of offers that confirmed progress. It locked in a industrial contract with Roehl; launched a pilot program to check Kodiak-equipped autonomous vehicles at West Fraser Timber Co.’s log-hauling operations in Alberta, Canada; and introduced a collaboration with the navy car maker Basic Dynamics Land Methods to create autonomous floor autos for protection purposes.

However buyers weren’t proud of the phrases of its $100 million capital raise. The corporate offered shares at $6.50 every — a steep low cost from its closing share value of $9.10. The elevate additionally included warrants — devices that give buyers the correct to purchase extra shares later at a set value, on this case as little as $6.

The financing got here from present backer Ares Administration and a number of other unnamed institutional buyers.

Kodiak’s inventory value fell 37% in after-hours buying and selling moments after the financing and Q1 earnings have been launched. Shares have recovered a bit since, maybe as shareholders digested the information and checked out it from a glass-half-full perspective.

Kodiak will doubtless want extra capital because it continues to burn money because it pushes towards its massive objective: driverless trucking operations on public highways.

Different offers that acquired my consideration this week …

Second Vitality, a startup that’s developed a novel strategy to repurposing EV batteries, raised a $40 million Series B funding round led by Canadian VC agency Evok Improvements, with extra funding from grocery retailer fund W23, becoming a member of present buyers like Amazon’s Local weather Pledge Fund and In-Q-Tel, the CIA-funded VC agency.

Rocsys, a startup that has developed hands-free depot options for autonomous electrical autos, raised $13 million in an prolonged Sequence A spherical led by Capricorn Companions, with participation from Scania Make investments, Forward.One, SEB Greentech Enterprise Capital, and Graduate Enterprise.

Notable reads and different tidbits

Aurora has began hauling masses in driverless trucks in Texas for distribution large McLane. The industrial contract reveals some progress by the self-driving vehicles firm. Disclaimer: These driverless vehicles nonetheless have human observers within the cab, and the corporate tells us they can not function the car. 

Lucid’s first-quarter earnings revealed an organization nonetheless feeling the consequences of a provider concern earlier this 12 months that brought about it to recall its Gravity SUV and pause deliveries. The corporate, which can also be going by way of a management transition, modified its steerage and mentioned it was not certain how many EVs it will build or sell this year. 

In 2024, the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration up to date the New Automotive Evaluation Program and added 4 new pass-fail exams to evaluate the performance of advanced assistance systems, beginning in 2026. And we’re lastly seeing the outcomes. The later-release 2026 Tesla Mannequin Y is the primary car to satisfy the company’s new benchmark.

Ouster is launching a brand new lineup of color lidar sensors that CEO Angus Pacala believes will exchange cameras.

EV startup Slate has misplaced a notable board member. The top of Jeff Bezos’ household workplace left the board, in keeping with quite a few state filings reviewed by TechCrunch.

Volkswagen is now Rivian’s largest shareholder, pushing Amazon out of the highest spot.

Yet one more factor …

Effectively, possibly two extra. 

Senior reporter Rebecca Bellan interviewed Aurora founder and CEO Chris Urmson lately for the Fairness podcast. Listen to the episode here. 

And, lastly, we had a ballot final week! Right here was what I posed to readers: “The California DMV issued new guidelines for AVs. Self-driving vehicles can now check and deploy within the state. Reporting, knowledge assortment, and operations necessities have been expanded and regulation enforcement can concern site visitors violations. These guidelines: go too far, hit the mark, or aren’t restrictive sufficient.” 

About 41% picked “hit the mark,” whereas 27.6% mentioned the principles go too far, and 31% mentioned they aren’t restrictive sufficient.

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