Rimac Automobili will soon launch new business initiatives.
The next step for Mate Rimac and his company is opening a factory of batteries and engine systems for electric vehicles. One of the fastest growing Croatian startup companies, Rimac Automobili, is at the end of the second investment round which will allow them to start mass productions of batteries and engine systems, reports Poslovni.hr on November 3, 2016.
Monika Mikac, head of operations of Rimac Automobili, says that for now they can confirm that Singaporean entrepreneur and VC investor Patrick Teng, who has invested in Hipersfera and several other Croatian startups and who was also in contact with Rimac Automobili, will not be part of this investment round. “More details on the investments will not be revealed until everything is settled”, says Mikac.
The second round is expected to be larger than the first in which Rimac attracted 10 million euros of investments, from the owner of Forbes, Chinese investors and an oil investor from Colombia. Mikac adds that the company currently has 200 employees and that the new investment will represent a step further towards mass production of electric cars.
However, the focus will be on strengthening the B2B segment, which is their main source of income and where, among other things, they produce batteries for the Swedish Koenigsegg. “We plan to launch a larger series of production of our batteries and engine systems”, says Mikac. It is the B2B segment which has brought Rimac to the top of the fastest growing medium-sized technology companies in Croatia.
In the last four years, Rimac Automobili has increased its revenue from 3.7 to 31.3 million kuna, while net profits last year climbed to the record 1.75 million kuna. Monika Mikac explains that she cannot discuss B2B clients from the automotive industry due to non-disclosure agreements. However, she says they are satisfied with the sales of their own electric car. Of the eight planned Concept One cars, they have pre-orders for six of them, and one has already been delivered to a customer in the United States.
“We also plan to develop a new car which will we produce in a slightly larger series, but that would still not be mass production of entire vehicles”, concludes Mikac.
