"We're doing our best to share our journey with you as transparently as possible,'' Mate Rimac states when explaining his new YouTube show - Mondays with Mate, which is sure to quickly gain popularity among car lovers from around the world.

As Goran Jungvirth/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of January, 2020, beloved Croatian entreprneur Mate Rimac, as well as the social networking administrator of the wildly successful Croatian company Rimac Automobili are active on the internet and often publish news about the development of their electric vehicles, with which the world has fallen in love.

In addition, they've been known to make jokes about trends and challenges that ''haunt'' various social networks from time to time, which speaks of a well oiled (no pun intended) international communication strategy.

Recently, the company headquartered in Sveta Nedelja near Zagreb hired well-known Russian YouTuber and test driver Misha Charoudin, who will surely have some lessons to teach and tricks up his sleeve for Mate when ir comes to communicating with his followers and fans on a modern multimedia basis.

''Welcome to our new show 'Mondays with Mate', where our CEO and Founder Mate Rimac updates you on the latest developments within Rimac Automobili and our industry, but also shares his take on topics chosen by you.'' the video's description states.

"A little bit about 2019, some plans for 2020 and an opportunity to engage with our fans even more - where you can ask us anything, and we will answer the best questions every Monday," Mate wrote about the reasons and topics covered by the first three shows of Mondays with Mate which were posted on YouTube in January.

In addition to the ''challenges of building a hypercar,'' Mate talks about campus building plans, global company expansion, financial plans, and collaboration with big players in today's auto industry.

As an award, those who post some of the best comments on YouTube will also receive a company T-shirt featuring the extremely powerful electric car - the new ''Concept 2'' - with 1,914 horsepower and the most impressive acceleration in the world - up to 100 km/h in 1.97 seconds.

Follow our dedicated Made in Croatia and lifestyle pages for more.

January 26, 2020 - The Rimac Automobili roadshow continues, with a room with a view for the new C_Two in Singapore. 

If there is one man who seems to be having a lot of fun these days, it is Mate Rimac, the charismatic man behind the Rimac Automobili phenomenon, which has grown from playing around with a car in a garage to one of the most exciting automotive and technology companies in the world in less than a decade. A company which now has A-lister industry investors such as Porsche and Hyundai and - last time I checked - employed 600 people. Not bad in a country which had no car industry whatsoever when he started. 

I have met Rimac a few times, and the overwhelming impression he leaves is one of positivity, as well an almost chilldlike passion for what he does - impatient to get onto the latest innovation to break new barriers. 

And it is clear that he is not the only one having fun in the company, whose Facebook page yesterday featured a new frontier for the iconic new C_Two from Rimac - a showroom with a view in Singapore. 

A room with a view! The C_Two at the top balcony of our South East Asia Partner Wearnes' Singapore showroom.

Mere mortals like most of us will of course never be able to afford a C_Two of our own in ten lifetimes, but for those of you who like to celebrate the success of others, especially Croatian success, I heartily recommend you follow the official Rimac Automobili Facebook page. 

I am not sure how you take the C_Two for a test drive from such an elevated showroom, but it would not surprise me if Rimac had a solution. 

And for those of you taking part in the current social media fad presenting your profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Tinder, RImac Automobili is pretty hard to beat. 

To follow the latest Rimac news from Croatia and elevated showrooms around the world, follow the dedicated TCN section. 

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Goran Jungvirth writes on the 12th of January, 2020, the innovative and talented Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac shared a new YouTube video on his Facebook page of a well-known YouTuber and speed expert who he brought to Croatia and provided with a job - Misha Charoudin.

Misha Charoudin, a Russian who adores cars and speaks several languages, is a motoring enthusiast who lived and worked at Germany's famous Nürburgring.

He is a well known Youtuber and has been for years, with several successful channels behind him, focusing on fast cars and everything about speed. While testing some of the fastest cars of today, he also knew how to break down what he recorded in his videos, making them not only entertaining but educational and drawing in subscribers and fans from across the world.

Mate Rimac, who is no stranger to being able to sniff out potential wherever he goes, has provided Misha with a job at Rimac Automobili in Sveta Nedelja, and the YouTuber has as such made the move to Zagreb.

''Hello Carmrades! This is the day I have moved to Zagreb, Croatia to start my new job at Rimac Automobili. I was very positively surprised to have made friends on my first day there. I hope you've enjoyed the new type of content, so I can keep on making more!'' wrote Misha on Saturday, who recorded an intro video of him landing in Zagreb to begin working for Croatia's beloved Mate Rimac.

Almost 13,000 people viewed the video in just one day, and his video of how he started racing at the Nürburgring and how much it cost him in had over 108,000 views in just four days.

Watch the video from Misha on his arrival in Croatia and the beginning of his new life with Mate Rimac at Rimac Automobili below:

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more.

December 22, 2019 - Another day, another piece of Rimac magic. Check out the latest from the RImac C_Two prototype in this stunning video. 

Last week I wrote an article listing my top 30 discoveries and best experiences of 2019 in Croatia. It was quite a list and it has been quite a year. The article was popular and widely shared, and I have had several requests to make it an annual list, a nice way to finish the year with a wave of positivity. A nice idea, and I will. 

But having lived here for 17 years and travelled to almost every corner of this wonderful country, just how many incredible places are there still left to discover?

LOTS! Including this little factory in Sveta Nedelja. With so much happening at Rimac Automobili, a visit is not long overdue, and I look forward to learning much more of the story. 

For the story is magnificent. I will leave you with the latest, in the words of the Rimac Automobili YouTube channel:

Following years of development and detailed computer simulations by the engineering team at Rimac, the Rimac C_Two prototypes are now being tested on tracks and in testing facilities around the world. The first batch of prototypes is undergoing vehicle dynamics, powertrain, passive safety and crash tests since spring 2019, pushing components such as tires and suspension to the limit. Following years of development and detailed computer simulations by the engineering team at Rimac, the Rimac C_Two prototypes are now being tested on tracks and in testing facilities around the world. The first batch of prototypes is undergoing vehicle dynamics, powertrain, passive safety and crash tests since spring 2019, pushing components such as tires and suspension to the limit. 

The Rimac C_Two is one of the world's most powerful and fastest all-electric hypercars. Designed, developed and manufactured at Rimac’s Zagreb HQ in Croatia, the C_Two bends the rules of driving and motion. Performance is on tap from zero, with 2300 Nm of torque instantly available. With its immense power density and lightweight construction, the C_Two is capable of 0-60 in 1.85 seconds and can hit a top speed of 258mph.  We are currently finalizing the development of the C_Two ahead of its production start at the end of 2020.

To follow the latest in the Rimac story, check out the dedicated TCN section. 

Beloved Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac is expanding Rimac Automobili's business to neighbouring Slovenia, where he will open a test centre code-named Hyper E-Car Lab in Novo Mesto.

As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 11th of December, 2019, Mate Rimac entered into this business in cooperation with the Slovenian company Lastinski Inzenjering from the former Slovenian Minister of Infrastructure, Energy, Transport and Spatial Planning Samo Omerzel.

"Lastinski engineering has offered for us to expand our testing capacities with a facility in Slovenia, which, given the cooperation we have, makes sense not only for us, but also allows many other manufacturers to test their drive systems in the laboratory in Slovenia," says Mate Rimac.

The Hyper E-Car Lab in Slovenia will serve Rimac to test battery and propulsion systems for its own cars, but will also offer such services to other automakers.

"The testing of electric powertrains and battery systems is a relatively new area and all manufacturers are struggling for testing capacities, and although we have certain capacities for that in the company in Croatia, which we're also upgrading, we still need more capacity," Mate Rimac says.

He added that as the industry moves more and more towards electric cars, he believes this is a great opportunity to build such highly sought after competencies and capacities in Slovenia.

The Slovenian media have stated that former Minister Samo Omerzel and Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac received 3.4 million euros in support from the Ministry of the Economy for the test centre project in Novo Mesto.

They state that they have explained to them that the project will be "a high-tech laboratory, which will allow for the testing of batteries, propulsion motors and electronics for the batteries of high-capacity electric vehicles."

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more on Mate Rimac and other Croatian entrepreneurs.

More than 1000 investors have invested in this Croatian company, raising its market value to a massive 45 million euros. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 3rd of December, 2019, Greyp Bikes, whose founder and director is the incredible Croatian entrepreneur from Livno, Mate Rimac, has raised 1.44 million euros in capital, 79 percent more than the target, through the popular German platform Neufund.

This concludes, and very successfully so, the first regulated blockchain and cryptocurrency group investment campaign in a company located here in Europe. In the USA, such investment campaigns have been underway since May 2016, the crowdsourcing platforms and campaigns are overseen there by the SEC regulator and FINRA.

Here at home in Europe, however, the move by the Croatian electric car manufacturer and Greyp Bikes owner sets a real precedent on the financial markets here. Greyp Bikes has launched the first legal Equity Token Offering (ETO) in the whole of Europe.

Its compliance with the law was monitored by the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority (FMA) regulator. ETO is a combination of the controversial and unregulated Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and the more traditional and preregulated Initial Public Offering (IPO). In recent years, many entrepreneurs have opted to raise capital through ICOs because of the low costs involved, which has created pressure on the offer of expensive investment mechanisms, such as IPOs, upon which the world stock exchanges from the NYSE and LSE to the ZSE are based.

Mario Vojvoda, ETO project manager at Greyp Bikes and co-founder and technical director of Croatian startup Tolar, says they have opened a new opportunity for EU companies and investors: "ETO investing will increase financing opportunities for all companies and democratise the availability of money, which is something crucial in markets like the Croatian one, which isn't so much in the focus of big investors,'' stated Vojboboda, noting that Greyp Bikes' ETO still didn't go all that smoothly despite the excellent results we now see in the end.

Potentially the biggest problem was created by the German regulator BaFina, which, as soon as it found out what was going on, issued a statement accusing the Croatian company of potentially issuing a public offering without a prospectus through the aforementioned German platform.

BaFina argued that there was no exemption from the obligation to publish a prospectus for all campaigns advertised in Germany under their Securities Act. It also demanded clarification from Greyp Bikes. Neither Neufund, Greyp Bikes or even crypto experts saw the issue as ETO approval was issued by the Liechtenstein FMA. This turned the debate into a weighing-in of the forces of the two EU regulators. The direction in which that all went is best described by the fact that BaFina did not seek a ban on Greyp Bikes' campaign, that is, it was more than successfully concluded.

Mario Vojvoda politely declined to comment on BaFina's move, but stressed that the most important thing for them from the beginning of campaign planning was that the process was regulatory-compliant and fully legal.

"We've made great efforts to have a serious, transparent, clear and legally clean process and we consider our process to be completely regular," stated Vojboda. He added that it is absolutely crucial for them to have a dialogue with regulators and to make sure all the details are clear. All of this fuss failed affect the ETO campaign. Greyp Bikes had planned to raise 805,617 euros, and in the end, a total of 1017 investors bought stakes in the Croatian company in the amount of 1.44 million euros.

As a result, Greyp Bikes now has a market value of 45 million euro or more than 330 million kuna. Here in Croatia, Funderbeam SEE offers a similar investment opportunity, but for example without cryptocurrency payments. However, as with stock exchanges, it seems crucial to choose a specific target group of investors. Namely, some of the biggest investors and biggest business partners in Mate Rimac's businesses so far come from Germany.

"The campaign has aroused a lot of investor interest and has thus enabled us to create a technology-loving community that is ready for bold steps in technology development, in which it will actively participate with Greyp, Bikes" explained Vojvoda.

Mate Rimac, founder and CEO of Greyp Bikes, sees the company with revenues of one billion kuna by 2024. Last year, according to Fina, the company reduced revenue from 3.6 kuna down to 3.2 million kuna, while the company's losses increased from 2.7 kuna to 7.7 million kuna. On the other hand, it sees growth in the use of blockchain in smart traffic. Neufund itself is already preparing three new ETO campaigns for two startups from Germany and one from India.

Make sure to follow our dedicated Made in Croatia and business pages for much more.

As Novac/Ilija Matanovic writes on the 24th of November, 2019, lately it has become somewhat difficult for a week to pass without a story popping up somewhere about the truly amazing Mate Rimac and his company: the latest, published in the British automotive magazine Autocar, says that Mate Rimac is set to open an R&D (research and development) centre in the UK.

This information was confirmed today by Rimac Automobili for Jutarnji list, with emphasis being place on the fact that the whole story is still in its very early planning stages, which means that no specific details are yet known, including the size of the office itself or the number of employees. According to the author of the text at Autocar, Mate Rimac told him that he "loves working with the British" and that he considers the "United Kingdom home to the best and most pragmatic European engineers".

''We're looking for engineers for positions that are very difficult to fill, and the United Kingdom is a country with such staff,'' read a statement from Mate Rimac's company.

Autocar spoke with Rimac about the deal between Rimac Automobili and the London-based HR Owen, a group that represents some of the world's most luxury car brands in the UK and is the world's largest dealer of Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti.

After Rimac unveils a production version of its C_Two model at the Geneva Motor Show in March, it looks like HR Owen will be the place to sell the car and provide after-sales support to customers when production begins at the end of 2020. It will become available to British customers in 2021 for around £2m, orders are being received now and deliveries will be dealt with exclusively by the HR Owen Experience Center in Hatfield, England.

Mate Rimac told Autocar that the production model would not be called C_Two, but would be given a new name.

''I can't reveal it to you yet. We haven't decided yet,'' Rimac told the English car magazine. He added that between 40 and 50 copies of that hypercar will be produced, plus an equal number of Pininfarina Battista, a car that uses Rimac's carbon chassis and mechanics. Mate Rimac explained that he would carefully limit the production of his cars because "if we stay below 100 copies a year, the big players won't care about that."

In addition, at the recently-opened Los Angeles auto show, Hyundai sports chief N Albert Biermann confirmed that they were already far behind in the development and testing of high-performance electric prototypes, in collaboration with Rimac (it's worth recalling that Hyundai has entered into the ownership structure of the Croatian company with an investment of 80 million euros). Biermann said Hyundai's plan is to come out with as many as 44 eco-friendly vehicles by 2025.

In addition, it should not be forgotten that through the Porsche investment in Rimac's company, the entire Volkswagen Group is in some way affiliated with this utterly remarkable Croatian company.

Make sure to follow our dedicated Made in Croatia and business pages for much more.

The past few weeks have showcased just how important Hyundai's investment in Rimac Automobili actually is, and not just in an economic sense. Can the Croatian Government manage to match his advanced level of thinking?

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Vecernji list writes on the 12th of November, 2019, Germany's Angela Merkel has set out to set up a million electric car refuelling stations across Germany by 2030, by 2022 there should be 50,000 of them, which will cost three and a half billion euros in total. This is already a serious increase given that there are now 21,000 such locations across Germany.

In addition, new subsidies from the German Government for electric cars were introduced, all after the German chancellor attended the presentation of Volkswagen's ID.3, a fully electric car with aspirations to replace even the likes of the Golf one day. The idea clearly left an impression on the most powerful woman in Europe, and she made sure the measures to get things moving were in place.

Mate Rimac, known for being far more forward thinking than the Croatian Government, was absolutely right in investing heavily in electric vehicles, and especially on a regular basis, pointing out that his company was primarily concerned with technology, and only then does concern for cars follow.

''The car industry is changing like never before. Now it has much more potential and it's a great opportunity for Croatia. We don't exist today because we know how to make lights or doors well, that's been being done for a hundred years now, but because we started something that was new even to them at the time,'' Rimac told Prime Minister Andrej Plenković during his visit to his company in Sveta Nedelja this summer. The visit was, quite shockingly, the very first Plenković had ever made to the factory.

"I remember very well the enthusiasm in Croatia last year caused by the success at the World Cup. The automotive industry needs to get just that kind of attention. We firmly believe in Mate Rimac, his ideas and his technology. We can provide our knowledge and experience in this regard, but it just isn't going to be enough without the Croatian Government's support. Much more is needed, especially when it comes to education, such as forming projects that will allow the educated to stay here,'' said Lutz Meschke, Porsche's high-ranking manager.

The meeting with Plenković came after big news which regarded the investment of an enormous 80 million euros, or 600 million kuna, from Hyundai into Rimac Automobili.

"Rimac Automobili is an innovative company with outstanding performance in high-performance electric vehicles," said Euisun Chung, executive vice president of the Hyundai Motor Group.

''Their startup roots and extensive experience in working with car makers combined with technological strength make Rimac Automobili an ideal partner for us. We're looking forward to working with Rimac on our path to clean mobility,'' Chung said.

The information provided alongside the investment stated that Hyundai Motors wants to accelerate its transition to clean mobility and position itself as a global leader in driving this change in the industry. One of the key measures to achieve this is electrification, and precisely along those lines - they plan to market 44 electrified car models by 2025.

Having partnered with a number of major global car companies, this was the final confirmation of the good direction Rimac Automobili is heading in. This process involves not only a Croatian company, however, but Croatia as a country, and many steps need to be taken.

''At the June meeting, we presented very specific measures that Croatia needs to take to make it attractive for such investments. The meeting was attended by the leading people of Porsche (a member of the VW Group) and Hyundai. I'm pleased that how much such an investment would mean for Croatia has been recognised, and I hope that the government will use the analyis and suggestions we've made and the contacts we've established to attract such investments. If there is any way we can help in this process, we're of course available. We have attracted more than 150 million euros in foreign investment and we're working with all the major players in this area,'' Rimac told Vecernji list.

Make sure to follow our dedicated Made in Croatia and business pages for much more.

As Telegram/Vedran Vrabec writes on the 7th of October, 2019, the highly respected American newspaper The Wall Street Journal published a conversation a few days ago with famed Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac, whom they refer to as "the next Elon Musk", claiming that ''Mate Rimac sells lightning in a bottle.''

The wildly popular New York daily begins its story by listing Rimac's numerous business successes.

This Croatian entrepreneur's incredible technology is embedded in the cars of famous manufacturers such as Aston Martin, Renault and Koenigsegg, his company attracted investment from Hyundai and Porsche, and VW acquired a 5.5 percent stake in Rimac's company last month, according to the aforementioned text.

"I think he's a genius," Heiko Mayer, who works on the Porsche electric model project, Taycana, said of Rimac. "I think he's going to become a legend."

Last month, Koenigsegg's Reger, a supercar powered by Mate Rimac's battery system, broke one of its most extreme speed records, when it reached 0 to 400 km/h in just 31.49 seconds, WSJ reports.

"Why do all these big companies come to strange, remote Zagreb, when they themselves have far greater resources? What is it that Rimac is doing differently?'' asked a New York journalist who spoke to the Croatian businessman.

"There's no 'silver bullet' that will solve all your problems," said the entrepreneur from Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina, who impressed the journalist with his excellent command of English, among other things. "There's a lot of optimisation, trying new things, experimenting; it's important to be quick, to test out ideas, concepts, simulations and detailed prototypes over and over again,'' explained Rimac.

The same is done in Porsche, the journalist notes, to which he explains that big manufacturers must be "technologically conservative." Rimac himself is certainly not conservative, as evidenced by the fact that his company's technology has not been patented. "If someone is so good to be able to copy us, go ahead, copy us, you deserve it. We're so quick that we move forward two generations before that technology can be protected,'' he said.

Mate Rimac built his business entirely from scratch, as the text states. The Republic of Croatia is one of only a handful of EU member states where there is no production of cars or auto parts other than his company, it is noted.

Rimac says his lack of investment from abroad was a big problem in the early stages of starting a business, as was the fact that there was nobody in Croatia to learn from about that type of business. "There was no market, there were no companies from which we could pull workers with some experience. Nobody knew how to make a chassis or a suspension, develop a crash test, develop headlights...'' Rimac tells WSJ of his rough beginnings.

His first product, the Concept One, turned out to be a real electric beast. It gained worldwide fame in 2017, when Richard Hammond, the host of the popular British show Top Gear, crashed it. To date, the company has recruited up to 600 employees, and has outgrown its existing facilities. Last year, Rimac introduced a successor to the Unit, named the C_Two.

In addition to the new car, Rimac Automobili is also planning a new complex, which reminded the respected American publication of something otherworldly, almost as if out of Star Trek. Rimac's new campus is set to be built on land covering 22 acres, near a 15th-century mansion. Among other things, it will have a green roof, and will also be home to animals, and Rimac (who is a vegetarian) hopes that their presence will make people think twice about eating meat.

In addition to all of the above, the complex will also feature a large outdoor meeting space, restaurants, a nursery, a hotel in the woods and more.

In addition to the production of parts for large automotive companies, a smaller number of Rimac supercars will be produced there, no more than three or four per month. "Costing two million dollars per car, this is no small business," said Rimac, whom the Wall Street Journal describes at the end of the text as a man obsessed with cars, speed, technology and, more recently, the launch of the Croatian automotive industry.

"Is all this good for me? Certainly not,'' Mate says with a laugh. "To do something like this means sacrificing everything else. I've accepted that. I have no time for myself or my friends.''

When asked about how he feels about Elon Musk, Rimac replies that he has never spoken to him. "But I'd like to talk about some things," he says.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business and Made in Croatia pages for much more.

As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of September, 2019, the 2018 annual report states that Mate Rimac's company has increased its investments to an enormous 106.7 million kuna, four times more than the year before. The level of investment offers some of the answers as to why Mate Rimac continues to do so well.

Mate Rimac, founder and CEO of the most famous Croatian startup Rimac Automobili, told Poslovni Dnevnik that he expects that in three to five years, his company will start to grow rapidly in terms of revenue. According to Business Croatia (Poslovna Hrvatska), Mate Rimac's now famous company has increased its revenue a more than impressive 7.5 times in the last five years. Last year, it amounted to 79.8 million kuna.

In addition, this week, the Croatian electric car maker was named the third fastest growing technology company in Europe, the Middle East and Africa by Deloitte, which also noted that it had experienced an increase of an amazing 361 percent.

"It's relatively easy to get on this list once, but this is our fourth year of being on it, which we're proud of, because it shows that we're able to sustain an upward trend in the long run," Rimac stated. He clarified that he also has a long-term strategy.

"Every year, we have significant growth, but our goal is to reach much more significant figures in five years, which is much more important to us than our previous financial results or the results in the next two to three years," Rimac said, adding that this year, his company has seen significant and quick growth.

As previously mentioned, the company's 2018 annual report states that Rimac Automobili has increased its investments to 106.7 million kuna, four times more than the year before.

"The development of a car takes 4-5 years, and just as long ago we started developing components for small-scale manufacturers such as Koenigsegg and Aston Martin, which means that these projects are now in series production," noted Mate Rimac.

He stated that in the past year, they have been transitioning from prototyping and small-scale production to large-scale production and the development and production of large series components for companies like Porsche and Hyundai.

Rimac says there are also more partner companies, but he can't mention them. This is similar to the agreement on cooperation with Pininfarina Cars which was signed off last September. It involves the development of a platform, propulsion components, batteries and other systems, and the job is worth a huge 80 million euros in total.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business and Made in Croatia pages for more information on Mate Rimac and much more.