Seattle, brace yourself for more neon bikes.
Spin Bike and LimeBike are expanding their Seattle fleets to 3,000 each. When we last checked in with the dockless bicycle sharing companies, they were operating about 2,000 a piece. Ofo, Seattle’s third bike share operator, said their numbers are still hovering around 2,000.
LimeBike’s growth is fueled by a new $50 million investment round, led by Coatue Management with participation from GGV Capital, The Durant Company, and others. The new funds will allow LimeBike to expand to 30 more cities in the U.S. by the end of the year.
In Seattle, LimeBike is adding bikes with taller seats in response to rider feedback.
The Emerald City has become inundated with bright orange, green, and yellow bicycles since the Seattle Department of Transportation created a new permit for the services earlier this year. The deluge has led some to speculate that Seattle’s dockless bike share market is oversaturated and others to dump the bikes in some creative parking spaces.
With the notoriously wet Seattle winter approaching, you might expect these companies to pull some of their inventory off of the streets. But LimeBike, at least, has no plans to do so.
“We are not currently planning on removing any bikes during the winter aside from regular maintenance needs,” said LimeBike General Manager Dan Stone in an email.
We’ve asked Spin and Ofo whether they plan to remove any of their bikes and will update this story when we hear back.