TechCrunch Mobility: Lime’s IPO bet

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After years of hints and preparation, the Uber-backed electric bike and scooter rental startup Lime filed for initial public offering. Will a micromobility company go public? In 2026? It’s definitely the wrong year.

Lime CEO Wayne Ting has been talking about an IPO for years. TechCrunch talked about it in 2020, 2021 and 2023. It never materialized and I kind of forgot about it until — boom — the S-1, the registration statement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, was published early Friday morning.

There are some interesting risk factors in the S-1, though we’re still waiting for Lime to share the terms of the offering.

Revenues are up, they have positive free cash flow, and net losses have narrowed after 2023, although there was a slight uptick between 2024 and 2025. Uber, which invested in Lime several years ago, is still an important player for the company. Lime said about 14.3% of its revenue came from 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 headed for profitability. But there is a substantial headwind. Lime has about $1 billion in current liabilities, 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 does not have sufficient liquidity to pay it, according to its filing. Lime makes it clear in its S-1: If it can’t go public and raise the necessary capital or change its debt covenants, it may not be able to continue as a business.

Senior reporter Sean O’Kane, who loves digging into an S-1 as much as I do, identified a few other elements in the risk factors. Cities’ investment in their public road infrastructure is a risk factor, according to the company. Lime lists specific potholes, which made me laugh and then nod. Potholes are not kind to common scooters.

Lime also warned that a significant portion of routes are concentrated in a relatively small number of markets in which it operates. One such market, which accounted for 22.2% of its revenue in 2025, is the United Kingdom

A little bird

Last summer, Uber announced a plan to launch a premium robotaxi service using Lucid Gravity vehicles equipped with of Nuro autonomous vehicle technology. This is more than a collaboration. Uber said it would invest $300 million in Lucid and separately buy “at least” 20,000 of the EV maker’s new Gravity SUV over the next six years. Uber recently increased its investment in Lucid to $500 million and pushed its order of vehicles to 35,000.

Details about Uber’s investment in Nuro, a private Silicon Valley-based startup, have been scarce — until now. At the time, we only knew that Uber invested an undisclosed sum of “several hundreds of millions of dollars” in Nuro. A little bird shared more details.

Uber’s total financial commitment to Nuro, which includes its participation in the startup’s Series E round last year and future investments based on milestones, is nearly $500 million, according to a source familiar with the deal.

My educated guess is that Nuro just unlocked one of these milestones. The company is testing Lucid vehicles in autonomous mode with a human safety operator in the driver’s seat. And last month it expanded testing to allow Uber employees to request an autonomous ride in a Lucid robotaxi with a human safety operator still on board. But the company just received two critical permits — a driverless test permit from the Department of Motor Vehicles and a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission.

Do you have a tip 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.

Offers!

Kodiak AI First-quarter earnings offer a case study in how difficult it is to commercialize cutting-edge technology. The company announced a series of deals that showed progress. He entered into a commercial contract with Roehl. launched a pilot program to test Kodiak-equipped autonomous trucks at West Fraser Timber Co.’s log operations. in Alberta, Canada. and announced a partnership with military vehicle maker General Dynamics Land Systems to create autonomous ground vehicles for defense applications.

But investors weren’t happy with the terms of the $100 million capital raise. The company sold shares at $6.50 each – a big discount from its closing share price of $9.10. The increase also included warrants – instruments that give investors the right to buy additional shares later at a set price, in this case up to $6.

The funding came from existing backer Ares Management and several unnamed institutional investors.

Kodiak’s share price fell 37% in after-hours trading after the release of its financing and first-quarter earnings. Shares have rebounded a bit since then, perhaps as shareholders digested the news and viewed it from a half-baked perspective.

Kodiak will likely need more capital as it continues to burn cash as it pushes toward its big goal: driverless transportation on public highways.

Other deals that caught my eye this week…

Momentary Energya startup developing a novel approach to reusing EV batteries has raised a $40 million Series B funding round led by Canadian VC firm Evok Innovations, with additional funding from grocery retailer fund W23, joining existing investors such as Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and VC firm In-Q-Tel.

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

Notable reads and other items

Dawn has begun hauling loads in driverless trucks in Texas for delivery giant McLane. The commercial contract shows some progress from the self-driving truck company. Disclaimer: These driverless trucks still have human observers in the cab and the company tells us they cannot operate the vehicle.

by Lucid First-quarter earnings revealed that a company is still feeling the effects of a supplier problem earlier this year that caused it to recall its Gravity SUV and halt deliveries. The company, which is also undergoing a leadership transition, changed its guidance and said it was no longer certain how many EVs it would build or sell this year.

In 2024, the National Road Safety Agency updated the New Car Assessment Program and added four new pass tests to assess the performance of advanced assistance systems, starting in 2026. And we’re finally seeing the results. The later release of 2026 Tesla The Model Y is the first vehicle to meet the company’s new benchmark.

Eviction launches a new line of color lidar sensors that CEO Angus Pacala he thinks it will replace cameras.

EV launch Shale lost a valuable board member. The head of Jeff Bezos’ family office has stepped down from the board, according to numerous government filings reviewed by TechCrunch.

Volkswagen it is now Rivianits largest shareholder, pushing Amazon out of first place.

One more thing…

Well, maybe two more.

Senior Journalist Rebecca Belan interview Dawn founder and CEO Chris Urmson recently for the Equity podcast. Listen to the episode here.

And finally, we had a poll last week! Here’s what I put to readers: “California DMV issued new rules for AVs. Self-driving trucks can now be tested and deployed in the state. Reporting, data collection and operation requirements have been expanded, and law enforcement can issue traffic violations. These rules: go too far, hit the mark, or aren’t restrictive enough.”

About 41% chose “hit the mark”, while 27.6% said the rules were too much and 31% said they were not restrictive enough.

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