Venture Capital News: LimeBike Raises Additional $70M
2018-02-15
SAN MATEO, CA, LimeBike, the leading smart bikeshare provider, announced today it has raised an additional $70 million as part of its Series B extension round.
California-based Fifth Wall Ventures and others participated in closing the round, which brings the total amount of funding raised by LimeBike to $132 million to date.
"With this new funding and set of partnerships, we are officially shifting gears from being a bikeshare company to a smart mobility solution provider," says LimeBike CEO and co-founder Toby Sun. "The new capital further solidifies our leadership position in the shared mobility industry as our market-ready, multi-modal mobility solution helps to meet the various needs of that first and last mile transportation challenge."
The new funds will be used to expand operations, support ongoing research and the enhancement of LimeBike's smart fleet, improve mobile applications, and increase the size of deployments. In addition, the company plans to continue its rapid entrance throughout the U.S. and in Europe. LimeBike announced just this week the largest deployment of shared electric-assist bike, Lime-E, along with the launch of its electric scooter, Lime-S.
LimeBike is increasingly focused on real estate partnerships to help accelerate its growth through distribution with commercial real estate owners that have large national footprints. Backed by many of the largest Built World owners and operators in the U.S. including CBRE, Equity Residential, Lennar, Hines, Macerich, Prologis, and Host Hotels, Fifth Wall will help support the company's real estate partnerships strategy.
"Real estate owners have looked to Fifth Wall to find the optimal partner in the bikesharing ecosystem as commercial real estate owners have a strong vested interest in creating more accessible and livable cities," said Brad Greiwe, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall. "Fifth Wall's strategic real estate partners want to help LimeBike distribute across consumer real estate endpoints: multifamily, office, and retail real estate. In effect, bringing shared bikes to the last 10 feet of the last mile at these assets will be a win for everyone involved: for LimeBike, for real estate owners, for consumers, for cities, and ultimately for the environment as well."
Coatue Management led the initial Series B round with additional investments from DCM Ventures, 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 NGP Capital, and Decent Capital also participated in this round. U.S.-based Fifth Wall closed the round, along with Rainbow Technology Co., Ltd.
LimeBike is the leading smart bikeshare provider in the U.S., with approximately 35,000 bikes deployed, with availability in 46 markets, and growing. LimeBike always seeks to partner closely with cities, colleges and businesses to provide dock-free, subsidy-free, shared smart mobility services and promote urban mobility for the public. Since launching in June 2017, the company has logged over 1.5 million trips, expanded internationally to Europe, and deployed electric scooters, electric-assist bikes, and multiple versions of their standard pedal bike.
About LimeBike
LimeBike is revolutionizing mobility in cities and campuses by empowering residents with a greener, more efficient, and affordable transportation option that also improves urban sustainability. 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 Silicon Valley's leading VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, LimeBike is based in San Mateo, CA. Learn more at limebike.com.
About Fifth Wall
Fifth Wall Ventures is the largest venture capital firm focused on innovation for the Built World. Fifth Wall is connecting the world's largest owners and operators of real estate with the entrepreneurs and innovators redefining how the world interacts with its physical environment. With $250M in assets under management, Fifth Wall is backed by Macerich, CBRE, Lennar, Hines, Equity Residential, Prologis, Host Hotels, and Lowe's Home Improvement. Fifth Wall invests in businesses from all sectors of the Built World, including retail, industrial, hospitality, multi-family, homebuilding, office, and brokerage. In addition to capital, Fifth Wall structures real estate partnerships that accelerate the growth of its portfolio companies. For more information on Fifth Wall Ventures and its partners, visit https://fifthwall.vc.
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