Uber pulling electric scooters by Lime into their app
Bike sharing service Lime is on a roll as it not only expands in Europe but also wins investment from Google’s Alphabet and Uber. The latter is spending a “sizeable” amount to integrate the startup’s electric scooters into their app.
Lime collected 335 million dollars in this latest round of funding led by GV, formerly Google Ventures. New investors included IVP, Atomico and Fidelity Management and Research Company but most importantly Alphabet and Uber.
Lime is now valued at one billion dollars and has been expanding continuously. The latest addition was the launch of electric trottinettes, small kick scooters, in Paris reportedly. Those trottinettes are now to be included in the Uber app as the ride hailing service is not only an investor but also comes on board as technology partner.
However, the plans of Lime appear to reach beyond sharing electric two-wheelers. What may have convinced these high level investors is their outlook to expand into the electric quad and possibly car sharing business in future. An investors’ deck was leaked ahead of the decision, in which Lime claimed their sharing business to be not only scalable but profitable already (we reported).
For Uber it is not the first venture into bike sharing terrain. The company bought San Francisco’s Jump Bikes this April reportedly and also applied for a scooter permit in the city. The Jump pedelecs can already be rented through the Uber app.
The Uber investment sum has not been disclosed but Lime described it as “sizeable” in its blogpost. On the cooperation they say they “are working to co-brand our scooters and make Lime available in the Uber app, with more news to follow.”
Lime claims that six million rides have been made using their light electric vehicles to date. This means their global fleet of e-Scooters, e-Bikes and bicycles has offset about 2,375 tons of CO2.
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