Uber Technologies Inc. is investing in Lime, an electric scooter company, as part of a $335 million round of financing led by Alphabet Inc.’s venture arm, GV, which values the scooter company at $1.1 billion, according to Bloomberg.
“Uber will work with us as a strategic partner in the electric scooter space to offer people a greater variety of transportation modes at their fingertips and make it increasingly easy to live without a car,” said Lime.
The ridesharing app is adding electric scooters to its list of “easy,” “fast” and “affordable” options of travel. Uber plans to add Lime to its mobile application, as well as slapping on its logo on the scooters similar to their recent acquisition with bike-share company Jump Bikes, which it bought for more than $100 million in April.
Lime is based in San Mateo, California, and can be found in major cities in the U.S. and Europe, which drawn Uber to grow even more in expanding into multi-modal transportation options.
“We feel like their footprint is obviously quite expansive at this point, and we’re really excited to see where it can go,” Rachel Holt, the former head of Uber’s North America told Bloomberg.
Uber recently applied for a permit to start its own scooter business. Holt said the deal doesn’t preclude Uber from entering the scooter business on its own.
Uber is not alone in joining the movement to expand travels beyond cars. Last week, Lyft announced their agreement to acquire Motivate, the largest bikeshare operator in North America to demonstrate its commitment to a more sustainable world.