GV partner Joe Kraus named Lime’s first COO

NelsonG · November 6, 2018

Lime announced more big hiring news this morning with the appointment of Joe Kraus, a general partner at Alphabet’s venture arm GV and an existing member of the bike- and scooter-sharing startup’s board of directors, as its first chief operating officer.

Kraus joined GV 12 years ago from the Google -acquired software startup JotSpot, where he served as the chief executive officer from 2003 to 2006. Before that, he co-founded Excite, an early internet search engine.

Earlier this year, Kraus helped lead GV’s first investment in Lime. In joining the company’s C-suite, Kraus will relinquish his board seat to another GV partner, as well as his GP title at the firm. He will stay on as a venture partner and will keep his existing board seats, per Bloomberg. Kraus is also on the board of Peerspace, a marketplace for booking space for events, and fintech startup Spruce Finance, among others. In his tenure at GV, he’s backed startups including Modsy, ClassPass, KeepTruckin and HomeAway.

“Joe brings years of operational experience combined with a strong venture background to Lime,” the company’s CEO and co-founder Toby Sun said in a statement provided to TechCrunch. “His keen sense of policy and local governments is an important asset as we continue our collaboration with cities around the globe.”

San Francisco-based Lime, valued at more than $1 billion, brought on former Uber chief business officer David Richter just last week as its first-ever chief business officer. The company is filling up its C-suite as it gears up to expand its portfolio of micro-mobility services into car-sharing.

More news will inevitably come from Lime soon as the company is said to be fundraising at a $3 billion valuation. Founded in 2017, the startup has raised a total of $467 million to date from GV, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Section 32, GGV Capital and more.

Among other projects in the works, Lime is planning a launch of brick-and-mortar scooter lifestyle stores in the U.S., beginning with Santa Monica, California, the headquarters of its biggest competitor, e-scooter startup Bird. Meanwhile, Lime, which has recorded 11.5 million rides as of September, is actively expanding in the U.S. and overseas.