Lime (transportation company)

Neutron Holdings, Inc.
Private
Industry Bicycle-sharing
Founded January 2017 (2017-01)
Founders Toby Sun
Brad Bao
Headquarters San Mateo, California
Website www.li.me

Neutron Holdings, Inc. dba Lime, formerly LimeBike, is an American transportation rental company that runs bicycle and scooter sharing systems in various cities. The systems use dockless vehicles and a mobile app to unlock vehicles. Lime's service typically starts at $1/1€ for a 30-minute ride on the traditional bikes, while its fleet of electric bicycles and electric scooters charge $1 to unlock and 15 cents per minute.

History

LimeBike was founded in January 2017 and raised $12 million in venture funding led by Andreessen Horowitz in March 2017.[1] The company's first location, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, launched in June 2017 with 125 bicycles.[2] LimeBike expanded in July 2017 to the cities of Key Biscayne, Florida, South Bend, Indiana, and South Lake Tahoe, California.[3][4][5] On July 27, 2017, LimeBike launched with 500 bicycles in Seattle, Washington, becoming the city's second bikeshare operator.[6] The company closed a Series B round of venture funding in October 2017, announcing that it was valued at $225 million.[7] A $335 million funding round in 2018 led to a valuation of $1.1 billion for the company, making it a unicorn.[8] In November 2017, LimeBike announced NFL running back Marshawn Lynch as one of its brand promoters, partnering with his company Beast Mode Apparel.[9]

In May 2018, the company announced that it would rebrand as "Lime" and partner with Segway to produce new scooters.[10]

The city of Coronado, California impounded over a hundred Lime bikes in 2018, and the company had to pay $9,300 to recover them in July.[11]

In August 2018, the company signed a deal with Uber to provide them electric bikes for the expansion of their Uber Bikes service.[12]

Equipment and usage

Lime-S electric scooter in Little Italy, San Diego, California, USA (Sept 2018)

Lime uses green-colored commuter bikes equipped with GPS units and 3G connectivity.[1][13] The bicycles also feature a front basket, a solar panel, and a smart lock. A mobile app is used to locate nearby bicycles and scan a QR code to unlock bicycles, which play a short chime.[1][14] Rides cost $1 for every 30 minutes of use.[1]

As of October 2017, Lime has 150,000 users.[15]

At CES 2018, Lime announced that they would begin a trial of electric bikes in San Francisco.[16]

Shortly after the release of Lime-E (electric bikes), Lime-S electric scooters were also announced.[17] In April 2018, these scooters were the subject of controversy after Lime left several hundred of them on the streets of US cities without the permission of municipal authorities:[18] public criticism of the project increased in June when it emerged that the scooters were programmed to play a recording of the message "Unlock me to ride me, or I'll call the police" repeatedly, at high volume, when their controls were touched.[19]

In May 2018, the company announced plans to begin development of transit pods, small self-driving electric vehicles.[20]

Locations

Lime-E electric bicycle in Berlin

Lime currently operates in the following cities:[21]

United States

Lime also operates on the following college campuses:[21]

Outside United States

Notes

  1. ↑ Malden,[23] and with Spin: Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Needham, Newton, Quincy, Revere, Waltham, Watertown, and Winthrop.[24] Dockless bikes are excluded from the Hubway operating area.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Kolodny, Lora (March 15, 2017). "LimeBike raises $12 million to roll out bike sharing without kiosks in the US". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  2. ↑ Newsom, John (June 1, 2017). "Green machines: New bike share program gets its start at UNCG". News & Record. Greensboro, North Carolina. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  3. ↑ Diaz, Johnny (July 24, 2017). "What are those bright green bikes in Key Biscayne? It's LimeBike, new bike sharing program". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  4. ↑ Parrott, Jeff (July 7, 2017). "Bike-sharing company LimeBike is coming to South Bend". South Bend Tribune. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  5. ↑ "New bike ride share program to start in South Lake Tahoe Saturday". South Tahoe Now. July 11, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  6. ↑ Soper, Taylor (July 27, 2017). "There are now 1,000 bike-share bicycles in Seattle as LimeBike officially launches service". GeekWire. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  7. ↑ Carson, Biz (October 16, 2017). "LimeBike Now Valued At $225 Million After Investors Go All In On Bike-Sharing Craze". Forbes. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  8. ↑ Robinson, Melia (July 10, 2018). "Uber, Google and top VCs just poured $335 million into scooter startup Lime — here's why one investor thinks it's the future of commuting". Business Insider. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  9. ↑ Baldassari, Erin (November 20, 2017). "Oakland Raiders' Marshawn Lynch throws his weight behind LimeBike with sponsorship deal". Mercury News. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  10. ↑ "Lime Rebrands and Announces a Partnership with Segway" (Press release). Lime. May 17, 2018. Retrieved June 15, 2018 – via PR Newswire.
  11. ↑ LimeBike paid $9,300 to pick up its impounded bikes
  12. ↑ Bond, Shannon (2018-08-26). "Uber gears up for shift to bikes on short trips, CEO expects short-term financial hit". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  13. ↑ Gutman, David (July 17, 2017). "Bike shares wheeling back into Seattle, but they're unlike Pronto in 2 big ways". The Seattle Times. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  14. ↑ Machkovech, Sam (July 23, 2017). "Dockless bike sharing lands in Seattle—and leads us down unsavory alleyways". Ars Technica. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  15. ↑ Carson, Biz (September 15, 2017). "With New Fundraising, 9-Month-Old Bike-Sharing Startup Is Said To Be Worth $200 Million". Forbes. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  16. ↑ Rose Dickey, Megan (8 January 2018). "LimeBike unveils pedal assist e-bikes". TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  17. ↑ Dickey, Megan (February 12, 2018). "Lime bike is also getting into the E-Scooter game". TechCrunch.
  18. ↑ Carroll, Rory (25 April 2018). "Are ride-share electric scooters the future of urban transport?". The Guardian.
  19. ↑ Levin, Sam (7 June 2018). "Scooters littering city streets shout at people: 'Unlock me or I'll call the police'". The Guardian.
  20. ↑ Brustein Bloomberg, Joshua (11 May 2018). "Scooter company Lime is planning to deploy 'transit pods'". Toronto Star. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
  21. 1 2 "Locations". Lime. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  22. ↑ "Bike Share - Transportation". City of Bellevue. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  23. ↑ http://www.cityofmalden.org/content/malden-debuts-ofo-and-limebike-dockless-bike-sharing-programs
  24. ↑ Vaccaro, Adam (April 13, 2018). "Thousands of dockless bikes headed for Boston's suburbs". Boston Globe.
  25. ↑ Repko, Melissa (August 4, 2017). "Is Dallas shifting gears? LimeBike, Spin join Big D's bike-share market". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  26. ↑ https://greenbaywi.gov/916/Bike-Share
  27. ↑ Bowen, Patty. "Bike share company deploys e-scooters in Meridian". IdahoPress.com. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  28. ↑ https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/union-county/2018/04/20/plainfield-launch-bike-share-program/524385002/
  29. ↑ http://www.rrstar.com/news/20180406/limebike-rolls-into-rockford-on-saturday
  30. ↑ http://www.mystateline.com/news/500-limebikes-to-hit-stateline-streets-saturday-morning/1105513591
  31. ↑ Melo, Frederick (September 19, 2018). "Lime rolls out 'dockless' bikes in St. Paul, complementing its scooters, and competing with Bird scooters". Twin Cities Pioneer Press. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  32. ↑ "Walnut Creek latest to share in the bike-share movement". East Bay Times. 2018-01-23. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  33. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (December 11, 2017). "LimeBike, the cycle-sharing startup, expands to Europe as it hits 1M rides in the US". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  34. ↑ Auchard, Eric (December 11, 2017). "LimeBike expands to Europe as cycle-sharing rivalry mounts". CNBC. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  35. ↑ Knoblach, Jochen (21 August 2018). "Neuer Fortbewegungstrend Elektro-Tretroller sollen auch bald in Berlin unterwegs sein". Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  36. ↑ Radio Bremen (March 11, 2018). "US-Firma startet Fahrradverleih in Bremen". Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  37. ↑ Cleanthinking.de (June 24, 2018). "Auch Lime bestätigt, das Angebot derzeit nicht aufrechterhalten zu können". Retrieved June 24, 2018.
  38. ↑ De Clercq, Geert (June 21, 2018). "Lime launches electric scooters in Paris, targets Europe". Reuters. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  39. ↑ "Miliardový startup Lime míří do Česka se sdílenými elektrickými koloběžkami". CzechCrunch (in Czech). Retrieved 2018-10-07.
  40. ↑ "Lime llega a España: así es el servicio de patinetes eléctricos compartidos de Uber y Google". El Economista. June 21, 2018. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  41. ↑ "Trotinetes elétricas da Lime já estão em Lisboa!" (in Portuguese). Lisbon. 2018-10-04. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  42. ↑ Cahun, Antonio (2018-10-05). "Lime es otra compañía de scooters eléctricos compartidos que pronto comenzaría operaciones en México". Xataka (in Spanish). Mexico. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  43. ↑ Zafra, Ignacio (2018-09-04). "Valencia exige a la empresa Lime que retire sus 200 patinetes eléctricos o lo hará la policía". El País (in Spanish). Valencia. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  44. ↑ Weikle, Brandie (2 October 2018). "Lime e-scooters opens first Canadian location with pilot in Waterloo, Ont". CBC News. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
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