LimeBike raises $70 million as the bike-sharing battle rages on

Bike-sharing turned multi-modal transportation company LimeBike has raised an additional $70 million from its previously announced $50 million Series B round. This brings LimeBike’s total funding to $132 million.

The funding comes shortly after LimeBike announced its entrance into the e-scooter and pedal assist, e-bike games.

“We’re interested in bike-sharing because it’s something real estate owners really want,” Fifth Wall co-founder and Managing Partner Brendan Wallace told TechCrunch about the firm’s decision to invest in LimeBike.

There are a number of competitors in the bike-share space, including Spin, JUMP, Ofo, Motivate and, most recently, Uber via a partnership with JUMP. As you can see below, many of LimeBike’s competitors have a significant amount of capital.

Before making the investment in LimeBike, Wallace said Fifth Wall looked at all the competitors before making its first and only investment in the bike-share space.

“Docked bike-sharing is insufficient or underutilized, Wallace said. “We became excited about LimeBike because it’s moving toward growth. We also like partnerships with cities and how they approach where they’re launching, as well as how they approach partnerships with real estate owners.”

It’s worth noting Fifth Wall’s limited partners include real estate titans like CBRE, Equity Residential, Lennar, Prologis and others. In partnership with real estate owners and developers, Wallace and Sun envision a world in which there are LimeBike-specific parking lots or hubs located outside office buildings. Then, building owners could subsidize rides or offer other incentives for people to visit their shops.

The aim is to move toward more livable cities, where both parking and car ownership are on the decline, Wallace said.

Nationwide, 40 percent of LimeBike rides start and end at a public transit station, LimeBike CEO Toby Sun said. And another 25 percent start and end at commercial and shopping areas.

Earlier this week, LimeBike’s electric bikes hit the ground in Seattle just earlier this week. Right now, LimeBike has about 4,000 bikes in Seattle. Down the road, the company envisions 40 percent of its bikes in Seattle being electric.

Sun added, “We are building LimeBike as an option for everyone and people who are underserved, who don’t typically get access to these types of transportation options.”