TechCrunch Mobility: Lime’s IPO gamble

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After years of consulting and planning, Uber’s electric bike and rental scooter. Lime given to a first public offering. A micromobility company going public? In 2026? It’s definitely a bad year.

CEO Lime Wayne Ting has been talking about an IPO for years. TechCrunch talked to him about this in 2020, 2021, and 2023. It never happened and I forgot about it, until – boom – the S-1 doc, the registration statement sent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, wrote on Friday morning.

There are some interesting features in the S-1, though we’re waiting for Lime to share what they’re offering.

Revenues are rising, they have good free cash flow, and financial losses have decreased after 2023, although there has been a slight increase between 2024 and 2025. Uber, which invested in Lime a few years ago, still plays an important role in the company. Lime said about 14.3% of its revenue came through its partnership with Uber, which allows customers to find and rent scooters and e-bikes through its app.

All of this suggests that Lime is a growing company that is on its way to profitability. But there is one big problem. Lime has $1 billion in cash at the moment, and about $675.8 million of that is due by the end of 2026. In total, about $846 million is due within 12 months. Lime doesn’t have enough cash to pay that, according to its filing. Lime makes this clear in its S-1: If it cannot go public and raise the necessary capital, or change its debt covenants, it cannot continue to operate as a business.

Senior reporter Sean O’Kane, who likes to dig into the S-1 as much as I do, saw some of the risk factors. Investing with cities in their public roads is risky, according to the company. Lime mentions potholes, which made me laugh and nod in agreement. Potholes are not kind to shared scooters.

Lime also warned that a large proportion of passengers are concentrated in the smaller markets where they operate. One such market, which will account for 22.2% of its revenue in 2025, is the UK

A little bird

summer is over, Uber announced a plan to establish a advanced robotaxi service using Lucid Gravity vehicles with No more autonomous vehicle technology. This is more than a contract. Uber said it will pay $300 million to Lucid and buy “at least” 20,000 of the EV maker’s new Gravity SUV over the next six years. Uber recently raised its investment in Lucid $500 million and pushed the car to 35,000.

Details of Uber’s investment in Nuro, a private startup in Silicon Valley, have been scarce — until now. At the time, we only knew that Uber had invested an undisclosed amount of “several hundred million dollars” in Nuro. One little bird has said a lot.

Uber’s total financial commitment to Nuro, which includes participation in an initial Series E round last year and future investments, is about $500 million, per a source familiar with the deal.

My educated guess is that Nuro has just opened one of these great deals. The company is testing Lucid vehicles in autonomous driving with a public safety operator in the driver’s seat. And last month it expanded testing to allow Uber employees to request autonomous rides in Lucid’s robotaxi while a public safety driver is on board. But the company only received two critical permits – a license to test without a driver from the Department of Transportation and a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission.

Do you have a warning for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

Sales!

Kodiak AI The first quarter earnings provide a lesson in how difficult it is to do frontier tech business. The company announced a number of deals that signaled progress. It was closed in a commercial agreement with Roehl; initiated a pilot test program for self-propelled Kodiak trucks at West Fraser Timber Co.’s logging operations in Alberta, Canada; and announced a partnership with military vehicle manufacturer General Dynamics Land Systems to develop autonomous vehicles for defense use.

But investors were not happy with the situation Raising $100 million. The company traded shares at $6.50 each – a huge discount from its closing price of $9.10. The upgrade also included warrants – tools that give investors the right to buy additional shares later at a set price, currently as low as $6.

The funding came from former Ares Management and several unnamed entities.

The Kodiak’s stock price dropped 37% in after-hours trading after Q1 earnings and revenue were released. Shares have bounced back a bit since then, perhaps sharing a story and looking at it through a mirror image.

Kodiak may need more money as it continues to burn money as it pushes toward its ultimate goal: driving a driverless car on highways.

Some products that caught my eye this week…

Moment Energystartup that has developed a new way to recycle EV batteries, raised a $40 million Series B funding round led by Canadian VC firm Evok Innovations, with additional funding from grocer W23’s fund, joining existing investors such as Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and In-Q-Tel, a CIA-backed VC firm.

Rocsysa startup that has developed hands-free storage solutions for electric vehicles, earned $13 million round Series A led by Capricorn Partners, with participation from Scania Invest, Forward. OneSEB Greentech Venture Capital, and Graduate Venture.

Popular reading and more

Aurora he has started to carry the goods driverless cars in Texas distribution giant McLane. The trade agreement reflects the progress of the self-driving car industry. Disclaimer: These driverless cars still have human observers in the car, and the company tells us they can’t drive the car.

Lucid wa First-quarter earnings revealed that the company is still feeling the effects of a supplier crisis earlier this year that prompted it to recall its Gravity SUV and pause shipments. The company, which is also going through a leadership change, revised its guidance and said it was no longer confident How many EVs will they build or sell this year?.

In 2024, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration they completely overhauled the New Car Assessment Program and added four new failure tests the functionality of assistive technologystarting in 2026. And we are seeing the results. Released after 2026 Tesla The Model Y is the first vehicle to meet the agency’s new standards.

To chase is launching a new series of lidar type sensors CEO that Angus Pacala They believe that they will replace cameras.

EV price changes Slate has lost a prominent board member. Head of Jeff Bezos’ family office left the boardaccording to multiple government documents reviewed by TechCrunch.

Volkswagen and now Rivian‘s the main shareholderpushing Amazon from the top.

One thing…

Well, maybe two more.

Senior reporter Rebecca Bellan he was asked Aurora founder and CEO Chris Urmson recently for the Equity podcast. Listen to the episode here.

And, finally, we had a vote last week! Here’s what I wrote to readers: “California DMV issued new rules for AVs. Self-driving cars can now be tested and deployed in the state. Reporting requirements, data collection, and their duties have been expanded and law enforcement can enforce traffic violations. These rules: go too far, hit it, or you don’t stop enough.”

About 41% chose “hit,” while 27.6% said the laws go too far, and 31% said they don’t restrict enough.

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