UBER will Rent Scooters Through its App in Partnership with LIME

Electric scooter rental company Lime is teaming up with Uber to bring an unconventional mode of transportation to the world. Uber Technologies is investing in Lime as part of a $335 million financing round. The deal, led by Alphabet Inc.'s venture arm GV, values the scooter business at $1.1 billion.

While details of the partnership are still being finalized, Uber plans to promote Lime in its mobile application and slap its logo on the scooters, executives from the two companies say.

Uber took a similar step with a startup called Jump Bikes, which rents electric bicycles, for more than $100 million in April. Uber says it still plans to roll out e-bikes in more cities around the world.

The Uber-Lime alliance has implications for the brewing scooter ground war. Since Lime was founded 18 months ago, the San Mateo, California-based company has raised $467 million. Los Angeles-based Bird Rides has nearly as much cash.

It was founded by Travis VanderZanden, a onetime Uber executive who has adopted a similar aesthetic to his former employer: In contrast to Lime's bright color scheme and affable executives, Bird uses darker tones, and its founder is a controversial figure. Investors recently valued VanderZanden's year-old company at $2 billion.

Lime says its service, which lets customers rent scooters scattered around cities and leave them on the sidewalk for the next person to pick up, is available in more than 70 markets in the U.S. and Europe.

Source: Bloomberg News