Lime was co-founded by Toby Sun and Brad Bao. The company began in January 2017 as LimeBike, a dockless bicycle-sharing service, before expanding into electric scooters and other forms of shared urban transportation.
Sun and Bao had both worked in the venture-capital arm of Fosun International before launching the company. Lime attracted $12 million in early funding in March 2017, then expanded rapidly across cities and campuses. Its app lets riders locate and unlock vehicles, typically using GPS and a smartphone.
The name can cause confusion because Lime is the current brand, while LimeBike was the company’s earlier name. It is also easy to mix Lime up with Bird, Spin, or Jump, which were separate micromobility companies. Lime’s founders remained associated with the business even after Sun stepped down as chief executive in 2019 and Bao took over that role.
A related milestone came in 2018, when Lime partnered with Uber to provide bikes for Uber’s bike-sharing service. Lime later became one of the best-known global operators of dockless electric scooters and bikes.