Lime Stock: Scooting Toward an IPO Next Year?

Learn how to invest in Lime stock when the IPO arrives. Get access to select pre-IPO startups like Anthropic, Databricks, and OpenAI via the Fundrise Innovation Fund*.

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Notable Lime News

04/07/2024: E-Bike Startup Lime Planning Fleet Expansion
12/20/2023: Lime Rival Bird files for bankruptcy
09/11/2023: Why Lime says the time is almost right to go public
02/21/2023: Lime reports first profitable year, tests the waters for IPO
Older news…

About Lime

Lime is a micro-mobility company helping people complete the “last mile” in their communities. Lime provides bikes, electric scooters, and mopeds to its customers for easy and affordable transportation with a low carbon footprint.

Users download the mobile phone Lime app, then use it to locate the nearest vehicle and complete their ride. Most of their transportation devices are dockless, meaning customers unlock usage and pay completely through the app.

The company employs “juicers” who collect and charge vehicles when the battery levels are low, then return them to various “LimesHubs” for easy access in the mornings. 

Founded in January 2017, the company has had various run-ins with local authorities regarding permits and safety issues. But these haven’t stopped growth.

Lime operates in more than 100 cities in the U.S. and around the world. Lime is a Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Companies.

Here’s a video showing how to start riding a Lime scooter.

 

Ownership

The shareholders include founders, early investors (venture capital firms), and employees.

Lime has raised more than $1.47 billion since its founding in 2017. The most recent raise was $523 million in November 2021, led by Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, Fidelity, fresh capital from Uber. The raise also included convertible debt. 

Other prominent venture capital investors include Bain Capital, Akkadian Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Alphabet, and GV (Google Ventures).

Funding Rounds

WordPress Data Table Plugin

Valuation

A confirmed Lime valuation is difficult to pin down. It has not raised funds since November 2021. And during that round, no valuation was provided. 

The previous round which took place in May 2020, established the valuation at about $500 million. That was down from its Series D in February 2019. The valuation is likely near or below that number as of September 2024, based on 409a valuation data provided by Caplight. 

IPO Potential

The Lime IPO date is currently unknown.

But CEO Wayne Ting told TechCrunch in September 2023:

If the market reacts well, and as more companies come out [with IPOs], we have the economics, the growth, the profitability to take Lime public hopefully as soon as the market permits.

He believes his greatest competitors are electric cars, not other scooter companies. Robo-taxies like Waymo will increase the competition. 

We won’t get a better sense of when the Lime IPO date is until some of the following things happen:

• New information about the Lime IPO date leaks to the financial press
• Lime announces (or leaks) that it filed an S-1 confidentially with the SEC
• The SEC releases a publicly available Lime S-1 filing
• Announcement (or press leak) of a forthcoming SPAC merger
• Lime selects a lead underwriter or banking partner for the IPO

All of these milestones and announcements will serve as supporting evidence of progress toward a forthcoming public offering.

Even when the company and SEC publicly release the S-1 filing, we still won’t know a firm date. However, the IPO date typically occurs a month or two after the S-1 is released to the public.

Bookmark this page for the latest Lime stock and IPO news.

How to Buy Lime Stock

Generally, it’s challenging to acquire shares of high-demand IPOs. Most investors will need to settle for buying the stock after it begins trading. 

IPO underwriters typically give their best customers access first, then allocate shares to certain institutions and brokers often tied by professional relationships. 

When the largest brokers receive IPO shares, they divvy them up amongst their eligible customers, prioritizing their most valued customers first (wealthiest). 

For high-demand deals, most investors will not get shares. 

A few brokers have partnered with the IPO investing app ClickIPO to give access to individual investors.

Investors are encouraged not to flip shares (sell them immediately after the IPO).

Though ClickIPO has not demonstrated the ability to allocate app users with high-demand IPO shares, they’ve executed more than 200 IPOs and secondary offerings on its platform. 

For individual investors without a high net worth, ClickIPO and its partner broker TradeStation is the most likely chance of participating in IPOs.

Robinhood has also added an IPO platform to its product lineups. 

With that, here are four potential ways to own Lime Stock: 

1. Access Shares pre-IPO

Founders, early employees, and investors often find themselves in a difficult predicament. They own valuable shares of a company that doesn’t trade publicly. 

These shareholders might have multi-million dollar net worth’s because of their stock holdings, but the stock is not liquid because it doesn’t trade on an exchange. 

A few platforms have evolved to gives these individuals a way to liquidate their holding before and during the IPO. These include prominent sites such as Hiive, Linqto, EquityZen, and Forge Global.

These sites bring liquidity to an otherwise illiquid asset. Accredited investors may join these sites and attempt to buy these companies’ shares when they become available. 

The shares are only offered to accredited investors because the company’s financials are not publicly filed with regulators yet, increasing the investors’ risk. 

For high-profile companies, demand is high, lowering your chances of acquiring shares. The author considers this a low-likelihood way to acquire shares. However, some readers have written with success stories buying shares this way. 

2. Participate in the Lime IPO

Ambitious investors can position themselves to invest in the Lime IPO once it arrives.  

Your chances of getting IPO shares depends on four factors:

• IPO demand
• Your broker and eligibility
• Your assets under management (AUM) at the broker
• Propensity to flip shares

As IPO demand increases, the chances of receiving IPO shares decreases. Therefore, the IPOs that are most interesting to the masses are the hardest to access. 

Most online brokers do not offer IPO shares. Check directly to see if yours does, or look at our list of best brokers for IPO investing. 

Legacy brokers like Fidelity and Charles Schwab have minimum eligibility requirements and penalties for flipping shares (selling shortly after the IPO). 

But even if eligible, the brokers must sub-allocate whatever limited shares they receive from the IPO underwriters.

This process is non-transparent, but priority is likely given to the wealthiest investors first. 

TradeStation is a top broker for IPO access through its partnership with Click Markets. The partnership allows for IPO access to ordinary investors via the Click Markets app and a connected TradeStation account. 

Joining a broker that offers access to IPOs does not guarantee a share allocation, especially in high-demand IPOs. You are probably better off waiting for the company to start trading after the IPO. 

3. Participate in the Directed Share Program

Another possibility is a directed share program.

Sometimes when companies file their S-1 SEC filing (to begin the IPO process), they include a directed share program for executives, affiliates, and other people who helped the company grow.

Since Lime’s success is due, in part, to its dedicated customers, it’s possible the company may offer IPO shares to frequent customers.

This has happened before.

Uber offered shares to drivers that completed a certain number of trips.

GoPro offered shares to its email list. 

Airbnb offered IPO shares to hosts. 

Considering Lime’s vast and growing customer base, pay attention to the S-1 filing for a directed share program.

Bookmark this page for more information as the IPO approaches. 

4. Buy Lime stock after the Lime IPO

Since acquiring IPO shares is almost always challenging for individual investors, the easiest way to own Lime stock is to wait for the IPO to complete. 

Realistically, unless your brokerage account is worth more than $1 million and your broker regularly receives IPO allocations, you are unlikely to get in on high-demand IPOs. 

In some cases, patient investors can buy the stock at or below the IPO price. This is not always true.

The Airbnb IPO, for example, soared and never looked back. But Uber, which many predicted to rise steeply, actually fell on the IPO date.

Spending significant effort to acquire IPO shares may not be worth it in the end. You may also spend time and effort to obtain shares but only receive a small allocation, limiting upside gain. 

Though IPOs can provide one-day gains north of 20%, even up to 100% in rare cases (such as Airbnb and Doordash), the most significant gains will come during the decade following the IPO if the company is genuinely disruptive.

Take, for example, Netflix, Amazon, or Tesla. You could have bought the stock years after the IPO and still experienced gains of more than 1,000%

If you’re an investor that wants to buy Lime stock for the long-term, consider opening a position after the IPO and averaging down if the stock falls. 

Short-term traders may angle to acquire IPO shares and hope for a short-term pop.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Lime Stock Publicly Traded?

No, Lime is still privately owned. Its legal name is is Neutron Holdings, Inc, doing business as Lime. 

What is the Lime Stock Price?

Since Lime is not publicly traded on a stock exchange, there is no public Lime stock price yet.

Private stock price information is not widely available for this startup. However, the stock price trades unusually low, somewhere in the $0.02 to $0.06 per share range, based on an April 2024 409a valuation. 

What is the Lime Stock Symbol?

Lime has not yet submitted public filings to the SEC. Therefore, it is not yet confirmed what the Lime stock symbol will be. 

However, the stock symbol “LIME” is available and the most likely candidate. 

Will There be a Lime SPAC Merger?

Possibly. In an interview with Reuters, CEO Wayne Ting, said he was “agnostic” regarding a traditional IPO or SPAC merger. 

A SPAC is a special purpose acquisition company, also known as a blank check company. They are shell companies designed to help established businesses go public without a traditional IPO. 

The SPAC company merges with the established company and takes on the established company’s name. It’s also known as a reverse merger. 

So many SPACs have gone public in the past 12 months that it’s likely Lime receives frequent pitches.

Rival transportation company Bird went public via a SPAC with Switchback II Corporation at an implied valuation of $2.3 billion.

The deal could put Lime in a strong position to go public via a SPAC. However, there are no indications from the founders or investors they are interested in a Lime SPAC. 

Using a SPAC to go public allows the company to skip the complicated and expensive IPO process. 

Not all companies are ready to IPO, making SPACs an attractive alternative to an IPO where the company can still raise new funds.

However, the more established a company is, the more resources it can hire to facilitate the traditional IPO process. 

When early investors and employees need liquidity, and the company generates more significant revenue, the company will decide on the best way to go public — a traditional IPO, direct IPO, or SPAC merger. 

Where is the find the Lime S-1 Filing?

The Lime S-1 filing won’t be publicly available until released. Once it is public, we’ll post it here. 

You can find a real-time SEC feed of the latest IPO filings from other companies on the recent S-1 filings page.

Lime News Archive

12/09/2022: Lime’s CEO thinks cars are his true business rivals
11/05/2021: E-scooter startup Lime raises $523 mln, eyes going public in 2022
11/19/2020: Lime touts a 2020 turnaround and 2021 profitability
05/07/2020: Uber leads $170 million investment in scooter company Lime
02/06/2019: Lime raises another $310 million, bringing its valuation to $2.4 bln
07/09/2018: Lime’s Next Chapter In Smart Mobility Backed By GV And Uber

Good luck if you’re interested in participating in the Lime IPO to own Lime stock. Invest in IPOs with caution. 

* Disclosure: The web page contains affiliate links from our partners. If a reader opens an account or buys a service from a link in this article, we may be compensated at no additional cost to the reader. Opening an account with a broker that provides access to IPOs does not guarantee the customer allocations of specific IPOs. The author is long TSLA, ABNB, CMG, AMZN. Please note: This is a testimonial in partnership with Fundrise. We earn a commission from partner links on AccessIPOs.com. All opinions are my own.