Shared electric vehicle operator Lime says that has become the first micromobility company to achieve a ‘full profitable year’ in 2022 after a substantial growth in its ridership.
The American firm has released key financial highlights for its performance last year, citing that a record $466 million (£386 million) in gross bookings – up 33 per cent on 2021 – helping it it an adjusted EBITDA of $15 million (£12.4 million).
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EPITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation. It essentially shows whether a company’s operations are profitable, but does not include capital expenditure, such as Lime’s spending on designing and manufacturing its own e-bikes and e-scooters.
The firm has not released a net profit figure, although it did says that it was “also profitable on an unadjusted EBITDA basis. In an interview with American business publication Fast Company, Lime boss Wayne Ting said he expected it to be “free cash flow positive very, very soon”.
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Lime’s success in 2022 was based on a record jumps in rides and revenue. The firm operates e-bikes and e-scooter rental fleets in more than 250 cities in close to 30 countries. In the UK it runs a range of e-bike and e-scooter fleets in London, Manchester and Milton Keynes.
Globally, the firm has more than 20 per cent year-on-year growth in gross bookings in every quarter of 2022, with its rights completing nearly 120 million trips – an average of one trip every three seconds. The firm also surpassed four million monthly active riders, which includes 1.5 million users who were new to the service.
In the UK, 1.5 million people have used Lime’s e-bikes or e-scooted since it launched here in 2018, with a record 317 per cent year-on-year growth in the number of trips taken last year.
In a statement Ting said: “I'm proud and grateful that together with our riders and city partners, we delivered a record year for Lime and our effort to replace car trips with cleaner forms of transportation.”
He added: “As countries globally are battling economic downturns, we continue to expand and see our shared e-bikes and e-scooters as not only part of the solution to the climate crisis, but also a more affordable and convenient option to cars.”
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