Lime Technologies, the UK subsidiary of the Uber-backed micromobility group, lifted pre-tax profit to £4.7m from £1.7m in 2025 as sales rose by a third to £148m and average monthly riders grew 31% to almost 700,000.
The results, reported by the Guardian from newly filed accounts, show the dockless ebike operator turning growth in UK ridership into a larger profit. That is uncommon in shared micromobility, a sector where several operators have struggled to reach profitability.
Lime's UK arm is owned by Neutron Holdings, the San Francisco-based parent, which counts Uber as a shareholder and was valued at $1.7bn (£1.3bn), according to the report. The group runs services in about 230 cities across 29 countries.
Fleet and footprint
The UK business added more than 4,500 ebikes and scooters during 2025, taking its fleet to almost 38,000 vehicles. Headcount rose to 54 from 39.
London remains the core market. Dockless ebikes now account for about one in 10 of the capital's 1.5 million daily cycle journeys. Outside the capital, Lime operates in Milton Keynes and Salford, in Nottingham since 2023 and in Oxford since 2024. That gives the business a growing regional base beyond its London volumes.
Unit economics
The figures point to operating leverage. Sales grew about 33% while profit rose about 176%, taking the pre-tax margin to roughly 3.2% from about 1.5% a year earlier.
For a hardware-heavy model with high depreciation and maintenance costs, that improvement suggests fleet utilisation is rising faster than the cost of putting more bikes on the street.
The regulatory overhang
Growth has brought scrutiny. London boroughs have confiscated at least 3,000 ebikes in 2026 over obstruction and parking breaches, and about 2,000 of them were Lime bikes. Rented ebikes were also linked to almost a third of cyclist–pedestrian collisions that required police involvement, according to the report.
The group is led by chief executive Wayne Ting. How councils regulate parking and permits for rental ebikes remains a key variable for operators' licensing costs and fleet caps.
What's next
For Neutron Holdings' shareholders, including Uber, a profitable and growing UK arm adds weight to the group's $1.7bn valuation. The open question is whether London's boroughs move to tender-based permits that limit operator numbers. That could protect incumbents' margins or cap fleet growth, depending on who wins the contracts.
Original source: The Guardian — https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/27/lime-bike-profits-double-rider-numbers-surge-england
