Latest news with #WayneTing
The Verge
3 days ago
- Business
- The Verge
Lime renews vows with Uber ahead of busy summer season
Lime, the shared scooter and bike company, is getting ready for another busy summer by cozying up to one of its biggest supporters, Uber. The two companies recently signed a new multiyear agreement that allows Uber to continue to feature Lime's shared bikes and scooters on its ridehail app. As part of the deal, Lime's rented bikes and scooters will continue to appear in Uber's app in the markets in which they overlap, including the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The previous agreement was set to expire later this year. 'We're pleased to extend this fruitful relationship into the future so riders can discover and quickly book Lime on the Uber platform,' said Wayne Ting, CEO of Lime, in a statement. 'Working with Uber has allowed us to reach even more people and provide more riders with shared, affordable, emissions-free transportation through one of the largest transportation platforms in the world. This deal further solidifies Lime as the go-to option for two-wheeled travel in cities.' Uber also recently announced that Lime would be included as part of its Uber One subscription members, offering 10 percent cash back on all Lime rides. Uber and Lime first came together during the height of the scooter boom in 2018, with the ridehail giant joining a $335 million round of financing led by Alphabet's venture arm, GV. That was the first time Lime's bikes and scooters became available for rent on Uber's app. During the covid pandemic, Uber threw a crucial lifeline to Lime, investing $170 million in the company in exchange for Lime acquiring Uber's Jump bike and scooter business. Today, Uber holds a 29 percent stake in Lime. And as the pandemic progressed, the deal positioned Lime to pull ahead of many of its struggling rivals. As other companies floundered, Lime scootered past all the mergers and bankruptcies, and now presents itself as the leading shared micromobility company in the world. Earlier this year, the company published its 2024 financial results, in which it touted a fourth consecutive year of over 30 percent growth, second consecutive year of positive free cash flow, and $810 million in gross bookings. And as the summer busy season approaches, Lime is setting its sight on new markets. The company recently launched in Barcelona, and later this year plans on expanding into Mexico. Its also continuing to scale its latest vehicles, the LimeBike and pedal-less LimeGlider, with launches in nearly a dozen cities over the past two months. Of the two new bikes, Lime says it plans to reach a fleet of more than 15,000 deployed vehicles globally in 2025. (The Glider is only available in North America, as the EU requires that throttle-only e-bikes be classified as mopeds.) Lime's bullishness on its business comes as the company recently hit a new record for daily ridership, surpassing 1 million rides in a single day on May 31st — and then again on June 1st. Lime says riders also recently exceeded 10 billion minutes using the platform, across more than 800 million individual trips since Lime's service began in 2017. Lime's decision to continue partnering with Uber comes as the ridehail company's main rival, Lyft, hikes the prices of its main bikeshare service, Citi Bike in New York. Lyft had been exploring a possible sale of Citi Bike, but now says it plans on expanding the service in the outer boroughs later this year. Uber says its deal with Lime helps get it closer to its goal to be a zero-emission platform by 2040. 'Lime has been an impactful partner in our efforts to make transportation easier, more affordable, and more sustainable,' Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, said in a statement. With widespread global use through Uber in over 200 cities, this next chapter is about scaling up together—and giving riders even more ways to get where they're going without owning a car.'
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lime and Forest e-bikes seized for blocking pavements - and released after firms pay £25,000 in fines
More than 100 Lime and Forest e-bikes that were blocking pavements in central London have been seized by council officials. The City of London Corporation, the local authority for the City's 'Square Mile' financial area, seized the bikes and charged the firms a fee of £235 per bike before allowing them to be recovered. It said more than 100 of the dockless bikes were removed from the streets over a two-week period because they had been left in areas where they caused an obstruction or presented an 'immediate danger to others'. This means the dockless bikes firms will have been fined in the region of £25,000 to get their bikes back. It is the latest controversy to hit the dockless bike industry, which has seen a huge growth in the use of hired e-bikes in London amid calls for the introduction of Londonwide rules to curb their numbers and tackle anti-social parking. Last year Brent council threatened to evict Lime because of issues with abandoned bikes, but eventually struck a compromise deal. According to the City corporation, the crackdown was taken 'to encourage hire operators to manage their own fleet and customers to comply with good parking behaviour'. The bikes were stored in a safe location for 24 hours, before Lime and Forest were able to collect them after paying the £235 release fee, which covered the City's cost of removal and storage. The City corporation already provides designated bays where e-bikes can be parked, such as in former car parking bays in Finsbury Square. It has added 300 more designated parking spaces across the Square Mile. But the sheer number of e-bikes being made available for hire – Lime is thought to have a fleet of 25,000 to 30,000 bikes and Forest of about 15,000 bikes – means many are dumped on the pavement. City officials said it launched the crackdown in response to the scale of complaints it was receiving about dumped e-bikes. Lime's global chief executive Wayne Ting was in London last month, and met Transport for London commissioner Andy Lord and Shravan Joshi, the City's transport chief, to discuss future regulation and how Lime aimed to 'work collaboratively' to solve the problems caused by the way some Lime riders dump the bikes carelessly. Lime has offered to fund new parking bays in the City through its parking infrastructure fund. Mr Joshi, chair of the City's planning and transportation committee, said: 'I recently met with the CEO of Lime, along with their CFO and UK Director which provided an opportunity to ensure their global senior leadership fully understands the impact. 'Lime has seen remarkable success and with 16 million journeys taken (including by me!) during London's commuting hours in 2024, their presence on the streets is undeniable, but so too are the challenges posed by bikes cluttering our pavements. 'The action plan from Lime is welcome news, particularly a funded programme that helps ensure we can continue to see dockless bikes on London's streets without causing disruption and obstacles to others. 'Alongside this, we will keep up the pressure to make sure results are quantified and meaningful, alongside Transport for London and London Councils.' Lime is making £5m available to London boroughs to create 2,500 designated bike parking bays. It has also pledged to beef up its in-house bike warden squads and will aim to move badly-parked bikes before complaints are received. TfL commissioner Mr Lord, speaking to The Standard last week about plans to regulate dockless e-bikes, said: 'We have got to have better co-ordination around how bikes are parked. 'We need to make sure they are not left in the way of pedestrians – and there is technology [that can help us do that]. 'Lime are committing to put some extra money into improving safety and their response to removing bikes that are inappropriately parked. 'Greater co-ordination, working with the boroughs, we have got a clear view that we want active travel and cycling to continue to grow, but we need to do it in a way that isn't causing issues for other road users and pavement users. 'We got a very clear view from the CEO of Lime that that is a priority for them.' Asked if he wanted to retain dockless e-bikes for hire in London, Mr Lord added: 'I think dockless bikes have got a part to play. 'Clearly we [TfL] are an operator ourselves, so we can't get into commercial issues, but I think there is a role for dockless bikes to play. 'But we need to improve the co-ordination and the ability for them to be parked in a way that doesn't cause aggravation and accessibility issues.' A Lime spokesperson said: "We fully support the City of London Corporation's efforts to ensure responsible parking of rental e-bikes across the industry, whilst ensuring that e-bikes contribute to the City's transport strategy and plans to improve air quality, reduce car traffic and increase cycling rates. 'We want Lime's e-bikes to enhance the City's transport network without causing inconvenience or hazards to Londoners. 'Currently the high demand for our e-bikes in the City of London far outstrips the parking spaces available, sometimes leading to overcrowded parking bays and mis-parked bikes. 'With our new £20 million London Action Plan we are building more parking spaces and increasing our on-street team by 60 per cent to help tackle this. 'Our CEO, Wayne Ting, recently had a productive meeting with the City of London Corporation on the topic, and we are working closely with them to ensure our bikes contribute to a cleaner, greener City of London." Alex Berwin, head of policy at Forest, said: "It is unfortunate a very small number of Forest e-bikes were collected as part of this action. 'However, we are committed to working with the City of London to ensure the hundreds of residents, visitors and commuters who rely on our e-bikes have a safe and convenient location to responsibly park their e-bike, as well as minimise obstructions for non-users. 'We look forward to continuing our partnership with the City of London and continue investing in essential infrastructure to support cycling across all boroughs."
