July the 9th, 2021 - The incredible Mate Rimac Bugatti deal has blown the myths about not being able to succeed in Croatia straight out of the water. If he hadn't managed to convince you of that before, which is difficult to believe, he certainly has now. This remarkable Croatian entrepreneur's dogged determination is tireless, and Porsche has become even more deeply involved in the Rimac company.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, drowning in the proverbial Croatian sea of ​​gloomy news about the failure of the vaccination rollout amid the pandemic and a new wave of mutated coronavirus posing a potential threat, the news that young entrepreneur Mate Rimac has taken over the cult figure of the automotive world, Bugatti, resounded like a nuclear bomb.

The historical success of the Rimac company, which operated out of a mere garage back in 2009, is astonishing. Very few people believed in the company's plans to create hypercars right here in Croatia, where cars are imported but not produced, but it turned out to be an astronomical success. The business side of the story, however, went under the radar.

The merger of Rimac Automobili and Bugatti Automobiles created a joint venture, known as Bugatti Rimac (in which the newly formed Rimac Group will hold a majority stake), which will be (in)directly controlled by Porsche with 58.2 percent ownership, while Mate Rimac will remain at the forefront, but with a minority stake of 20.4 percent.

The transaction isn't accompanied by cash flow as such but is a matter of exchanging shares, which reflects the consequent rearrangement of the structure of the Rimac company. With this move, Rimac's startup actually ceases to be a startup and is being additionally integrated within the umbrella of the VW Group, of which Porsche is of course a part. Rimac Automobili is becoming the Rimac Group (divided into Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Technology) in which Mate Rimac formally holds the largest single stake of 37 percent, Porsche 24 percent, Hyundai 12 percent and other shareholders 27 percent.

The Rimac Group will have a 55 percent stake in the Bugatti Rimac package, which includes the separate brands Bugatti Automobiles and Rimac Automobili. The remaining 45 percent of the shares of the joint venture are held by the German manufacturer, which has been following the Rimac company financially for the last three years.

Despite these figures, which lean significantly in the favour of the German investor, it has been agreed that Mate Rimac will remain at the helm, as the CEO of the Rimac Group he will lead the business of Bugatti Rimac and the new company Rimac Technology. It's here that the core business that broke through in the automotive industry remains - the development, production and delivery of battery systems, powertrains and other EV components. All of the above will be 100 percent owned by the Rimac company.

“What's important to note is that the Rimac Group is managed by director Mate Rimac. The owners participate in the management of the company through the Supervisory Board,'' stated an explanation regarding German shares. They added that “Rimac Group is the largest shareholder of Bugatti Rimac d.o.o. where Mate Rimac is also the director. Mate is also the director of Rimac Technology, which is 100 percent owned by the Rimac Group.''

Car buffs who follow such news aren't too surprised by this outcome, although it is almost certain that there was resistance to such a solution. The new Rimac company remains under the control of a young businessman who, despite all the objective obstacles to doing business in Croatia, raised the company from scratch in an industry that is markedly capital intensive. Only twelve years has passed from the aforementioned garage adventures to the presentation of the stunning Nevera, the fastest electric hypercar in the entire world. 

The fact that all of the above was done at all is exceptional, but knowing it has been done by a Croat, in Croatia, is bordering on miraculous.

For more, follow our dedicated business section.

April 26, 2021 - Rimac C_Two against Porsche Taycan - which is faster? Mate Rimac races to find out. 

Mate Rimac published a video of the race between the Rimac C_Two and Porsche Taycan Turbo S on the runway of the airport in Nova Gorica. The C_Two he drove was one of only five prototypes, Rimac said, and announced that he would invite journalists to test it in the coming weeks. Rimac C_Two will not be the official model name, though Rimac said it will be announced soon.

"The car is not finished yet, there is still room for improvement," he says.

Despite a poor start, Rimac C_Two overtook Porsche and was the first to cross the finish line.

"Of course, not everything is accelerating," said Rimac and announced significant progress in the car's performance in the next few weeks.

The Bugatti Chiron currently holds the record with 9.4 seconds for a quarter-mile, while Rimac was just under 9 seconds. 

Rimac C_Two is an electric hypercar presented in 2018 at the Geneva Motor Show. ‘A car brought together with technology', as some have called it, has seen a lot of hype in the automotive world.

According to Rimac, it reaches a speed of 415 kilometers per hour, develops a power of as much as 1914 horsepower, and reaches 100 in less than two seconds, so it is currently one of the cars with the highest acceleration in the world.

The C_Two is unlocked by the face recognition system, and in just half an hour it will charge 80 percent of the battery that drives it.

For the sake of humor, a fire extinguisher has been added to C_Two with the inscription "if driving uphill, put out the fire" as a reference to the famous Grand Tour crash when Richard Hammond was behind the wheel of Rimac's Concept One.

Rimac Automobili previously announced that they need about eight weeks to produce each prototype, which is twice as fast as the previous production process. In full operation, the factory will be able to produce up to four prototypes per month. This means that the entire batch of 150 should be produced in three years.

For more news about everything made in Croatia, be sure to follow TCN’s dedicated page.

March the 8th, 2021 - Porsche has decided to invest a further 70 million euros into the Croatian Rimac Automobili company, owned by Livno-born entrepreneur Mate Rimac.

As Ivan Luzar/Telegram writes, Porsche has invested an additional 70 million euros in Croatian Rimac Automobili, taking Porsche's stake in the company up to 24 percent. The news of this additional investment was somewhat expected, as last week we wrote about a potential 130 to 150 million euro investment from the giant company. The same was said by the founder of Rimac Automobili, Mate Rimac to the German automotive magazine Automobilwoche.

Rimac Automobili has as such reached a value of 795 million euros, or 947 million US dollars, writes Reuters. Last week, the Croatian Rimac Automobili commented on the news of the increase in Porsche's share in the company headquartered in Sveta Nedelja near Zagreb, thus confirming that the German company was set to increase its share, but that Rimac Automobili will still remain independent. Then, as now, they still have not commented on the news of the possible takeover of Bugatti, which has been talked about for months.

Porsche invested for the first time back in 2018

Porsche invested in Rimac Automobili back in 2018, when they took over a 10 percent stake in the company, and just a year later, they increased that stake to 15 percent. Now, two years later, Porsche has bought an additional 8.8 percent for the aforementioned 70 million euros.

"Rimac is well positioned for the production of prototypes and cars in small series. Rimac Automobili is on its way to becoming one of the main suppliers for Porsche, but also other manufacturers in the high-tech segment of the automotive industry,” said Porsche CFO Lutz Meschke.

Since back in 2018, when Porsche first invested, Rimac has almost doubled its number of employees to a thousand. They have also undertaken various collaborations in the automotive industry, such as the one(s) with Hyundai, Kia and Aston Martin.

Rimac: "The amount of the investment is not a priority"

Mate Rimac commented on Porsche's new investment on his Facebook profile: 

Can there be a better confirmation of a successful partnership than 3 separate investments within 4 years?

Getting Porsche initially on-board was extremely important for us. Having confirmed that they did the right thing and that we have earned Porsche’s trust, makes us very proud.

This 70M Euro investment is part of our long-term strategic collaboration, where different aspects of strategic collaboration can be expected in the future. The valuation and amount raised are not the priority in this deal. We are working on some other transactions that will reflect the market value of Rimac as a company.

We are all excited to see the fruits of this ever-deeper cooperation.

For more on Rimac and Croatian entrepreneurship and companies, follow Made in Croatia.

January 17, 2021 - Porsche Boxster celebrates 25 years with a stunning new promotional video on Croatian roads.

The cult car brand Porsche Boxster is celebrating its 25th birthday, and a video filmed in Croatia was presented a week ago for the big anniversary. Porsche has thus joined the company of several car brands that have chosen Croatia, and Croatian roads, to film their videos.

The Adriatic Highway was built in the 1950s and 60s and offers a beautiful view of Croatian nature in almost its entire length of 650 kilometers. Index.hr reports that the roads on the island of Pag and the Adriatic Highway stood out as the most popular locations in this 1:37 minute video.

Drivers and fans of octane sports consider the D25 Karlobag - Gospić section of the Adriatic Highway to be one of Croatia's most beautiful roads, where the bends are said to be a pleasure to drive. Porsche has also chosen to capture this location to celebrate Boxster's 25th birthday. Namely, the video sets off on a hill towards Gospić, and on the ascent, it captures several beautiful shots with a view of the Adriatic. 

HRTurizam writes that this is excellent advertising for Croatia because globally known brands can only help Croatia's image around the world. It also pushes other companies to come to Croatia to film their promotional videos, but also to shoot movies and series, as we have seen in many examples thus far, like Game of Thrones in Dubrovnik or, most recently, Amazon Prime film 'Bliss' in Split. 

It should not be forgotten that in addition to excellent promotion, local resources are used to record videos and films, from Croatian production teams to accommodation and business tourism. Thus, the whole story spreads and has additional benefits.

To read more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

November the 12th, 2020 - The Zagreb company Infinum is set to create for no less than the automotive giant Porsche, a move which will be accompanied by the opening up of new employment opportunities and an enormous investment.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tanja Ivancic writes on the 11th of November, 2020, the Zagreb company Infinum has been operating within the IT sector for 15 years now, and its last venture, ie the launch of yet another new company, opened up yet more doors for them.

''My mum taught me how to drive when I was just 15. I always tell the story of how it took me several days to learn to ride a bike - on the other hand, it only took me a few minutes to learn to drive a car. I’ve always loved cars, motorcycles and actually everything on wheels. There's something beautiful in the common nature of engineering, design and passion that cars bring together in one place. And no car brand in the world does it better than Porsche, and it's the same feeling in starting a new company and doing business with our new partners Porche Digital,'' announced Tomislav Car, co-owner and CEO of the Zagreb company Infinum.

Namely, Infinum, a Zagreb company engaged in software design and development, and Porsche Digital, a subsidiary of the huge German sports car manufacturer Porsche, launched a new company back in September - Porsche Digital Croatia. It is a digital technology development centre that, as was announced, will employ 100 professionals over the next three years to work on software design and development, artificial intelligence and machine learning, developing products and services that will work to further enhance the digital ecosystem.

Mate Rimac was the glue

In the new company, partners Infinum and Porsche Digital have equal ownership shares, and according to their current business plans, as much as 10 million euros will be invested in the company and product development.

''The automotive market is progressively adapting to new technologies and business models, so those who are triggering changes today will shape the digital market in the long run,'' said Tomislav Car, CEO of the Zagreb company Infinum, explaining that he will develop products in two main directions: one part refers to digital products which will be used by buyers and potential buyers of cars, and the second part will be related to production and other internal processes.

At the same time, the already wildly successful Zagreb company will continue to develop digital products for their customers. The leaders of Porsche Digital, which has offices all over the world, were contacted by the Infinum family through no less than Mate Rimac. As Car recounted, they ''clicked'' very quickly and realised that they were thinking similarly about technology and business.

''I hope that our cooperation will bring knowledge from Germany that we may not have yet and that together we will continue to develop such an ecosystem in Croatia,'' stated Car.

It's worth noting that the talented Tomislav Car founded Infinum back during his student days, fifteen years ago. He described this Zagreb company's very early beginnings on his website back in 2012.

''Matej Spoler, my colleague and co-founder of Infinum, and I met at high school in Karlovac. We both loved creating new things, which by chance were related to technology. There was everything, from software for PC, mobile phones and the web, and even a few avant-garde projects. I remember when Matej built water cooling for his computer to optimise the computer cooling process, and I built a computer into the boot of my first car in order to always have a large collection of music with me,'' recalls Car.

40 percent growth

Since then, the Zagreb company Infinum has grown to 280 employees and associates across as many as a dozen countries. They mostly work for western markets and their clients are global companies from all over the world. Last year, at the Group level, they had a consolidated 82 million kuna in revenue, and this year they expect to have around 100 million kuna in revenue and around 300 employees. Their average annual growth over the last five years has stood at about 40 percent. Infinum's operations and all of their investments were financed exclusively from their own reinvested earnings.

The co-owners of the Infinum group, along with the two founders, are Nikola Kapraljevic and Josip Biscan, who will also make up the management team of the new company Porshe Digital Croatia. When it comes to other companies owned by Tomislav Car, there is also CircuitMess, which he started with Albert Gajsak.

Regarding the motives that drive him, Tomislav Car says that his main desire and challenge is to create something new, regardless of whether it is a product or starting a company. For now, says Car, they aren't thinking about selling Infinum even though they do have an offer.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

Croatia is attracting more foreign investments despite the economic woes caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which has taken the world by storm. Mate Rimac, Croatia's most beloved entrepreneur has discussed the Croatian economic situation, the Croatian company Infinum, Porsche's latest dip into the waters of business in Croatia and more.

As Novac/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 10th of September, 2020, the question is whether or not the Croatian economic situation, at least in regard to high-tech, is turning into the type that can be found in the famous Silicon Valley. if you were to ask Mate Rimac, the founder and director of Rimac Automobil, then this is exactly the case.

Mate Rimac told Jutarnji list that he is delighted that Infinum and Porsche have realised a joint venture in Croatia, their planned R&D centre for software development for the automotive industry, in which they will invest 10 million euros and employ 100 experts in three years.

"I often talk to the management of Porsche about how to increase their presence in Croatia. Infinum is an extremely high-quality company with a leadership that plays in the world's first league and I'm very glad that the initial idea of ​​connecting Infinum and Porsche bore fruit," said Rimac.

Tomislav Car, co-founder and director of Infinum, the largest Croatian manufacturer of mobile applications, praised Mate Rimac on Tuesday, because their investment was made because of him.

"Thanks to Mate Rimac's company, Porsche has recognised Croatia as a good opportunity to invest in high-tech R&D projects," Car emphasised.

Rimac emphasised that the Silicon Valley is such a good place for business precisely because people help each other out. He recalled the time when Porsche invested in a Croatian technology company a couple of years ago, it sounded unreal. Could the Croatian economic situation ever provide for such an atmosphere? One can hope.

"This is Porsche's second significant investment in Croatia, but it certainly isn't the last. I hope that together with other technology companies in Croatia we'll manage to create a strong ecosystem that will grow exponentially by supporting each other," concluded Mate Rimac.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

Zagreb, September 8, 2020 – As Hina reports, Croatian domestic IT company Infinum, together with Porsche Digital, a subsidiary of German Porsche, is launching the Porsche Digital Croatia company in Croatia, for software design and development, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, which will see a 10 million euro investment.

Infinum is one of the leading Croatian and internationally recognized companies that has been creating software design and development since it launched in 2005, and the new company with Porsche Digital will be a development center for digital technologies.

"The company will start operating at the end of September and will be located at Zagreb's Strojarska Street, and in the next three years, we are planning to employ 100 experts who will develop and design software, artificial intelligence, that is products and services that are advancing digital ecosystem," Tomislav Car, President of the Management Board and one of the founders of Infinum, pointed out at the presentation.

He added that they have equal ownership shares in the new company with Porsche Digital. Also, after 15 years of creating digital products and services on large projects, in this partnership, they see an opportunity to create a digital future.

"The automotive industry is increasingly adapting to new technologies and business models, which we see as an opportunity for our development as well, and in business plans and joint research of new business models of the Porsche brand, but also others, such as VW," said Car adding that they will work in multidisciplinary teams.

Stefan Zerweck, the head of operations at the Porsche Digital, is also satisfied with the partnership. He assessed that the opening of the company owned by Infinum and Porsche is a strategic venture to expand the global innovation ecosystem because it shares the same business spirit and goals.

"With Infinium as a strong partner and with the international network of teams that share the knowledge, we continue to research all of the possibilities of digitalization. Infinum has everything we've been looking for, from the local recognization, awards they received, to working on the large and complex projects for global clients, where it's also important that they care for employers' education and satisfaction," said Zerweck.

Member of the Management Board for Finance at Porsche Digital, Ralph Knoll, regarding the joint venture, expressed the optimism for future business, and both companies consider that their partnership will attract talents to Zagreb and Croatia from technology and innovations fields, but also contribute to the country's image in terms of being desirable for the automotive industry.

Infinum currently employs about 250 experts to various clients in the world from various industries, and their products are used by millions of people around the world. For several years, even in 2019, they were on the Deloitte list as the fastest growing technology company in Europe and beyond. In addition to Zagreb, they operate and have offices in the USA and several more countries.

Porsche Digital is a technology and digital laboratory for sports car manufacturer Porsche based in Zuffenhausen, Germany, and employs around 160 people in several locations around the world. With their new office in Zagreb, their global network of innovations consists of three more locations in Europe and four additional offices in Israel, China, and the USA, with development centers in Ludwigsburg, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Shanghai, Atlanta, and Silicon Valley.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

A couple of years ago, Zagreb's Esplanade Hotel was the first hotel in the region to install the destination chargers for Tesla electric cars.

Now, the hotel has made another step into exploring sustainable business models, and has come to an agreement with Porsche. The prestigious German car-maker has installed the Porsche Destination Charging station in the hotel as well. This newest addition to the Esplanade Hotel garage will allow all Porsche electric car owners to charge their cars there free of charge - but the same thing will be available to all-electric cars that have a standard European charging connector, hrturizam.hr writes.

Ivica Max Krizmanić, the director of the Esplanade Hotel said that this addition to the services offered by the hotel proves that they are still at the top of the market, following the newest trends in luxurious services provided to their guests, trying to best their expectations and offer a different experience of a hotel stay. He added that the hotel has decided to support those customers who have a Porsche vehicle or any other electric car with a European connector by providing the free charging.

Their experience has shown that the guests are delighted by such innovations, and introducing the newest trends in luxury services is their way of doing business, one they're particularly proud of. Since they've had Tesla Destination Chargers for a while now, they hope that with this addition their garage and parking spot will feature only the "green" cars.

Porsche destination charging station for the electric vehicles offers 11 kW of power, and it takes a few hours to fully charge the batteries of a car. The Type 2 Model of the charger is located in Esplanade hotel, and you can charge all European hybryd and electric cars there, which makes it even more important as it can be used on a large number of types of vehicles. Currently, there are 49 thousand such Porsche charging stations in Europe, in 12 different countries. The one in Esplanade hotel is the first one in Croatia, but people from Porsche Croatia believe that the network will soon expand, as the number of hybrid and electric vehicles is growing in Croatia rapidly.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 15th of May, 2019, CET - Cutting Edge Technologies d.o.o. which has successfully been operating in the business incubator of the Technological Innovation Centre in Međimurje (TICM) in Čakovec for five years, has been acquired by German CETITEC GmbH and has as such become CETITEC d.o.o.

Bojan Kolmanić, a development engineer with a wealth of experience in developing software and electronic components for the automotive industry and who is also one of the co-founders of CET, began the company's business back in 2014, according to Međimurske novine.

This entrepreneurial Međimurje local has built up his successful career over in Germany where he is still working, and in Čakovec, he's gathered together a team of top engineers working on the development of communications software primarily for the German car industry. One of the motivators behind the move is the fact that software produced and developed here in Croatia is used in cars around the world.

They started TICM with a mere four people, and currently they have thirteen employees with expansion plans in the near future. The company places great emphasis on those they employ and is constantly investing in them, as they are the main foundation for further expansion and handling larger and much more demanding projects. That is why another office has been opened in Zagreb, where they want to attract even more people and thereby achieve their long-term goals.

Because their knowledge and skills are highly specific, they also make sure to invest in the development of the local community. They want to show young people that enormous potential lies in STEM areas and they want to arouse their interest in them. The company seeks to create workshops in which the technologies they are dealing with and the products they develop are presented.

The company's business success has also resulted in a Zlatna kuna (Golden kuna) nomination for its business results in 2018 in the Post Startup category. The quality of its leadership and its development team has been recognised by the CETITEC group which has since purchased CET. However, what's even more interesting is that at the same time, the majority owner of the entire CETITEC group became Germany's Porsche. So far, they have cooperated with large manufacturers, but this acquisition by Porsche is an additional confirmation of their obviously good direction.

Although part of a globally known group, CETITEC will continue to operate from the TICM incubator in Međimurje. This acquisition is proof that the results of their devoted work on automotive software development are valued globally.

In this way, the development of this type of software, which is among the most demanding components in the automotive industry, will be developed by the renowned world manufacturer Porsche by no less than Međimurje locals in TICM. They plan to continue to expand and strengthen their local team.

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

Celebrated Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac discusses Rimac Automobili's new partnership with Hyundai and Kia Motors, how he plans to give a certain percentage of the company to its employees, revenue, the future, and more.

As Jutarnji list/Gordana Grgas writes on the 14th of May, 2019, after it was announced that the Hyundai and Kia Motors had decided to invest a massive 600 million kuna in capital into Rimac Automobili, Mate Rimac announced in an interview for Jutarnji list that he would give seven percent of the company to his employees, from the cleaners to the directors.

We're bringing you the English translation of that interview here.

Why has Rimac Automobili entered into a partnership with Hyundai?

"We've been in contact with them for a couple of years and have been cooperating with them for a few years. They sent a strong delegation to us and, as soon as they saw the company, as soon as they saw what we were doing, they decided to invest immediately. In October last year they gave us an offer and we entered into negotiations. To have a partnership with such a company is very important for us. When looking at comparisons, they have a revenue of 250 billion euros, which is four times more than the Croatian GDP, and we're also working directly with the administration. Euisun Chung, who was there upon signing the contract, is the executive vice president, the grandson of Hyundai's founder, who's now taking over the firm from his father.

We're quick, small and innovative, we see and create the future and that's very interesting to them, this is hugely important for us because, on the one hand, we've got the Volkswagen Group and Porsche, and then we've got Hyundai and Kia on the other, and we've been so busy with work with these companies that we don't know where we're going!

The best thing is that they're not just buyers of our products but also shareholders, therefore it's in their interest that the company succeeds. They will help us build faster in areas where we may have some weaknesses, for example in industrialisation, in the transition from small-scale to large serial production.

Today, we're dealing with very complex systems for large car manufacturers, power systems, batteries, electronics, etc., we've achieved all that very quickly, but we need strategic partnerships. It's very difficult, especially moving from small to large series. We need money to help the company achieve its goals. We invest a lot, we're constantly expanding our plants, we employ more than 500 people, more than 300 engineers... We're not like the others, we're not wired money from the state but we get our money on the international market, and there's nowhere better to find money than with a company that really understands what you're doing, which is a partner and also a buyer,'' stated Mate Rimac.

What's the ownership structure of Rimac Automobili like now? You said you wouldn't remain the majority owner...

"Now I have .. (looks at his phone) Just a second, I have all of that in a document..."

Do you not know what your share is now? Does that not matter to you?

''Well, that's not important to me. People don't really understand that. I'm killing myself with this job and I'd be the happiest man in the world if there was someone who could run the company better than me, so I could just do what I like doing, the technical part of things. Now I'm the executive and technical director, and now I hold 47.7 percent, the Chinese camel group holds 14 percent, Hyundai has 11 percent, Porsche has 10 percent, Kia has 2.7 percent, and the remaining shares belong to the investors from 2012 and 2013.''

Are the employees among the co-owners?

"No, but we're working on that now, all of the employees will get a share, up until now, the ESOP was not worth it for them because of the tax. They'll probably get seven percent, from the cleaners to the directors, but not everyone will get the same share.''

How much is Rimac Automobili worth now?

"More than 500 million euros."

Why did not you not get to capital through an IPO, on the stock market?

''A lot of technology companies are now doing IPOs and they're actually losing money, they still have no stable and profitable business. Let's say Lyft, Uber or Snapchat... I don't want that. I want to make an IPO when the company's numbers are at that level. The company's potential is huge, and we have now used a piece of it and it's a shame to go out out onto the stock market with this company's situation. In 3-4-5 years, it will be at a completely different level. Besides, we have good access to capital outside of the stock market, we've got that luxury.''

How much was Rimac Automobili's income last year?

''I wouldn't go into income, there are no final reports yet. That's not our focus either, but a long-term trend. Here's an example - the car that we're developing for Hyundai now goes into serial production in 2023 only. Those are the cycles of our projects and to us, as well as to our shareholders, it's really neither here nor there what the financial outcome will be for this year or for next year, we're building a long-term story.''

Are you making a profit or are you still in the minus?

''We were still in the minus last year because we invested a lot. It's important to note that this minus comes from shareholder money, and everyone agrees that it's the company's plan.''

What will you specifically use this 600 million kuna for?

''For many things. This is part of our C investment round, and we'll still have investors in this round for another 70 million euros, but we don't know who that will be for now, but they will probably be financial investors. One of the things we will invest in is building our campus, our development and research centre and our factory, and another company expansion, employing a lot of people and equipping the company. For the transition to serial production, it's necessary to equip our production plants, test our products, develop them right up to the end, certify them... It's a big thing.''

Where will the new campus be? And what will be there?

''We're planning a campus for 2000 people because we want to have a longer-term solution. The headquarters of the company will also be there, as well as the development and research centre, production, testing, there'll be a hotel for guests and employees coming from elsewhere, kindergartens for employees' kids, restaurants, food production, hairdressers, sports facilities... I want it all to be integrated there.''

Where will this be located and when will you embark on construction?

''Near Zagreb. The location hasn't yet been agreed, we're look at a few of them, we're negotiating. Construction should start early next year.''

I guess the campus will be a little special in the aesthetic sense.

''Nine international and several Croatian architectural studies are currently working on suggestions for conceptual solutions for the campus. Among them was Lord Foster (British architect Norman Foster), we had a meeting the other day. He worked on Apple's campus and many other world-famous buildings. Everyone is so excited about this project and offering some great suggestions. They tell me that there's no such thing anywhere else, the combination I want - the campus being open to the public, the care for the employees and the connection with nature.''

The serial production of your C-Two has been announced for next year. Where are you going to do this?

''We got a hall in Veliko Trgovišće (Krapina-Zagorje County). The C-Two prototypes are still being done in Sveta Nedelja, and when we finish them, we'll move the manufacturing of the prototypes to Veliko Trgovišće. We already produce the batteries and the power systems there because we're out of space here. We're now there in five buildings and we were looking for something a bit closer to Sveta Nedelja, but there was just nothing there. Since there is no industry in Croatia, there's not much out there to rent. So now we're in Veliko Trgovišće, and we have centres in Split and in Osijek.''

Why did you open them there, so scattered apart?

''We grew so quickly over the last year. We now have fifteen engineers in Split, and about ten in Osijek, ane they're now our competence centres - in Split, we do our own automotive software development tool operation, and we deal with our high voltage chargers in Osijek.''

The prime minister has never been in your facility?

''No, never. To make it clearer, I don't ask for anything from the government. All I do is to urge the government to do the right thing to bring the car industry to Croatia. I have proved that it's possible.''

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

Click here for the original interview/article by Gordana Grgas for Jutarnji list