LimeBike Closes $50 Million Series B To Expand Dockless Bike Sharing Nationwide

SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LimeBike, the nation's leading dockless bike sharing service, today announced it has raised $50 million in Series B funding to speed the rollout of its programs into 30+ cities and campuses across the U.S. by year-end.

The new funds will be used to expand operations, support ongoing upgrades to the bike design and the mobile app, and increase the size of the current deployed fleet by ten times towards the end of 2017. The California-based company plans to launch one to two new markets every week to serve over a million users by the end of 2017 and expand globally in 2018.

The round brings the total amount of funding to $62 million. U.S.-based Coatue Management led the round and partner Thomas Laffont will join the board of directors. Other new investors joining this round include GGV Capital, Franklin Templeton Investments, Section 32 (led by Bill Maris, founder and ex-CEO of Google Ventures), AME Cloud Ventures (led by Jerry Yang Co-Founder of Yahoo!), Stanford-StartX Fund and The Durant Company (founded by professional basketball player Kevin Durant). Previous investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and DCM Ventures, also participated in the round.

LimeBike is now the largest dockless bikeshare operator in the U.S., with approximately 10,000 bikes deployed, and available in 20 markets total (twelve cities and eight university campuses). LimeBike always seeks to partner closely with cities, colleges and businesses to provide dockless, subsidy-free bike share services and promote urban mobility for residents and visitors. Rides cost one dollar for 30 minutes or fifty cents for students. Since launch four months ago, the company has achieved nearly five times growth in rides and revenue on an average monthly basis with the number of riders increasing by more than fivefold. The company has logged over half a million trips, 250K registered users, and is growing 50 percent week over week on average.

"Bike sharing is shaping the future of transportation," said Toby Sun, LimeBike CEO and co-founder. "We're passionate about solving the challenges of the first and last mile and we believe that better understanding the migration patterns of commuters can eventually help us to create efficiencies in urban mobility and cut down on carbon emissions in our cities."

LimeBike started its first deployments in June 2017 at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, followed by Seattle, Washington D.C., Dallas, South San Francisco, South Lake Tahoe, South Bend, Key Biscayne, Imperial Beach, University of Notre Dame, North Carolina State University, University of Washington, among its 20 markets in total. Most recently, LimeBike expanded to Miami Shores, Fla., Alameda, Calif., Aurora, Colo., Arkansas State University, and is in discussion with several other major cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City.

"We believe dockless, connected bikes have the potential to revolutionize the first and last mile of transportation," said Jeff Jordan, general partner, Andreessen Horowitz and LimeBike board member. "LimeBike is making strong progress in leading this shift. The team is passionate, understands the wide-ranging needs of the US market, and is committed to collaborating with cities across the country to complete their public transportation system."

"LimeBike provides an affordable, frictionless experience for anyone with a smartphone to get to their destination faster," said Kyle Lui of DCM Ventures. "The speed of LimeBike's growth is phenomenal and DCM Ventures is excited to continue backing this exceptional management team."

"We have known co-founders Toby and Brad for more than four years, and together have seen the popularity of bike sharing explode in China, said Hans Tung, Managing Partner of GGV Capital. "We are an early investor in this space there, and also have a sizable portfolio in ecommerce and online services here in the US. We believe LimeBike has built the strongest team, and has the best approach, to play a critical role in the public transportation sector in the US and Europe.  We know bike sharing could delight consumers with the highest frequency of daily transportation services, enhance the ease to get around their respective cities, and serve as an entry point to other e-services."

LimeBike is growing at a rapid clip, and this round of funding will help it to accelerate the pace as it is entering metropolitan areas and college campuses alike.

List of 20 markets

Cities:

1. Seattle, Wash.
2. Dallas, Texas
3. South San Francisco, Calif.
4. South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
5. Key Biscayne, Fla.
6. South Bend, Ind.
7. Greensboro, N.C.
8. Imperial Beach, Calif.
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Aurora, Colo.
11. Alameda, Calif.
12. Miami Shores, Fla.

Universities:

1. University of Notre Dame
2. St. Mary's College
3. University of Washington
4. Holy Cross College
5. University of North Carolina, Greensboro
6. NC Agricultural and Technical
7. North Carolina State University
8. Arkansas State University

Previous Investors
LimeBike has received investor attention from around the world. In addition to Andreessen Horowitz and DCM Ventures, Series A investors also include IDG Capital, Gang Wang (angel investor of Didi Chuxing, OFO), Decent Capital (founded by former Tencent COO Jason Zeng), Welight Capital (founded by former SVP Tencent Free Wu), and 7Seas Ventures (founded by former Tencent CTO Jeff Xiong), Danhua Capital, and UpHonest Capital.

About LimeBike
LimeBike aims to revolutionize mobility in cities and campuses by empowering residents with a greener, more efficient, and affordable transportation option that also sustainably improves urban mobility. By partnering with local key stakeholders and systematically deploying a fleet of  smart-bikes that are enabled with GPS, wireless technology, and self-activating locks, LimeBike will dramatically improve urban mobility by making the first and last mile faster, cheaper, and healthier for riders. Funded by leading Silicon Valley VC firms Andreessen Horowitz, DCM Ventures, and GGV Capital, LimeBike is based in San Mateo, CA. Learn more at www.limebike.com.

SOURCE LimeBike