Mate Rimac is the 33 year old founder of the Croatian electric hypercar company Rimac Automobili and Greyp Bikes, a high-tech eBike and eBike technology company.
When Mate was 19 years old, he converted an old 1984 BMW 3-Series into an electric car in his garage. That car broke several world records for electric cars, before Mate went on to create his first all-electric supercar from the ground-up, the Concept_One in 2011 at the age of 23.
His company, Rimac Automobili, went from welcoming its first employees in 2011 to more than 900 employees in 2020, attracting major investment from Porsche AG, Hyundai-Kia and Camel Group, one of Asia’s largest battery manufacturers. In addition to developing and manufacturing their own electric hypercars, Rimac provides electric vehicle technologies and systems for many big names of the auto industry. Its list of OEM customers include Porsche, Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Jaguar, Aston Martin, SEAT, Koenigsegg and Automobili Pininfarina.
Rimac’s second car, designed, engineered and built in-house, is the Nevera, a 2000hp $2.4 million eclectic hypercar created to put the fear of God into gas powered car. The first customer deliveries of the Nevera is expected later this year.
Rimac is proud to be Croatian and has previously resisted offers to move his business out of the country, stating that his goal is to bring automotive manufacturers to Croatia. Motor Trend has ranked Rimac 9th on their list of the biggest players in the auto industry, Forbes Magazine named Rimac one of their Top 30 Under 30 in 2017. That same year, he was named the Croatian Entrepreneur of the Year.
What’s his secrets to success? The first is over-delivering on a promise and exceeding expectations. The second is looking the part. This was the reason he grew a bread. To make himself look older in front of the stuffy suits from the car companies he was pitching to. The third secret is employees are No. 1. Rimac goes to extreme to keep his employees happy. Making sure employees have a great work environment was the key design principle of the new headquarter Rimac is building.
Mate Rimac’s success is about to give him a new title: Self Made Billionaire. Manager Magazin reported on Wednesday that Rimac is planning an IPO that would value the company at 5 billion euros ($6.06 billion USD). With Mate controlling 60% of the company stocks, that gives him a net worth of over $3.6 billion. As great as that sound, I have a feeling Mate is just getting started.
