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.
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