A Lime electric scooter parked in San Francisco.

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Lime, the debt-laden micromobility company backed by Uber, had a muted Nasdaq debut Wednesday, closing 4% above its IPO price at $26.02.

The debut is a bellwether for how public investors value micromobility—and a Hail Mary for Lime, which warned it would be forced into bankruptcy without a public listing. Notably, Bird, once valued at roughly $2.85 billion and one of Lime's main scooter-rental rivals, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2024, just three years after going public through a SPAC merger.

Neutron Holdings, Lime's parent company, priced its IPO at $25 per share (trading as LIME), valuing the company at $1.66 billion. As a private company, Lime's valuation peaked at $2.4 billion in 2019. The offering raked in $173.92 million, including $167 million in new capital and $6.92 million for select existing shareholders.

Prior to the IPO, Uber held a 24.4% stake. It handed its Jump e-bike and scooter unit to Lime as part of a $170 million investment in 2020. Abu Dhabi's Sapphire Direct Holding was the second-largest holder at 17%, followed by Fidelity at 11.5% and Andreessen Horowitz at 5%.

Lime took on much of its debt in the low-rate era, spending heavily on scooter hardware to outpace rivals amid city dwellers' enthusiasm for car alternatives. It disclosed about $845.8 million in debt coming due within a year, most of it in 2026, including convertible notes and a $115 million term loan that Uber guaranteed.

A major challenge for electric scooter operators like Lime remains with local regulators. Lime can't operate in Manhattan, for instance, though it's available in other New York boroughs. It has expanded elsewhere, including in European cities like Barcelona, and now operates in about 230 cities across 29 countries.

"We came back from death," said Noa Khamallah, Lime's first European hire who left in 2019 and is now a general partner at Don't Quit Ventures. "The industry has evolved, and we are changing the way people rediscover their city on a daily basis."

Still, Lime's losses have widened, according to Lime's financial disclosures, from a net loss of $34 million in 2024 to $59 million in 2025.

"Seems like it is an IPO of desperation needed to clean up their balance sheet," said Jonathan Geurkink, a senior research analyst at PitchBook.

This article originally appeared on PitchBook News