Lime CFO on navigating e-scooter pushback
The electric scooter market is taking off worldwide, but some cities aren’t so enthusiastic about the new addition to streets.
Following a string of recent accidents by riders, many e-scooter companies are receiving pushback from city officials, including Parisian Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who is calling for regulations on the number of scooters allowed in the city.
Micromobility company Lime’s scooters are currently available in more than 100 cities in 20 countries. After two years in business, the startup has more than 15 million sign-ups.
Despite its growing user-base, Lime says it’s still facing an uphill battle in some regions, said Lime’s chief financial officer Ted Tobiason. The reason? Change.
“It’s something new, and I understand,” he told Yahoo Finance. “I totally respect the fact that they want to take a measured approach to make sure that people are not inconvenienced, that they are safe, that it’s safe, that we’re doing things the right way. We’ve taken an approach ... with cities to be collaborative.”
Earlier this year, the micromobility company lost its bid to launch phase 1 pilots of its scooters in the company’s homebase of San Francisco earlier this year.
Working with — and like — Uber
Tobiason also discussed the company’s partnership with investor (and sometimes competitor) Uber (UBER) on how to deal local municipalities.
“We are their exclusive third party partner and we are in the app. I think there are things that we can do to make that work better for Uber and better for us. Right now both of us are growing exceptionally fast with a lot of things on our plate. I think there are things that remain to be done to optimize that, but I look at Uber as a very important partner for us.”
Devin Southard is a producer for Yahoo Finance.
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