In the latest investing round Rimac Group collected EUR 500M after which its market value increased to EUR 2B. The majority of the investment was provided by the largest technology investment fund, SoftBank Vision Fund 2. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 is part of a large Japanese multinational company which is well known for investing in Uber, We Slacka, and more. The remainder of the large investment was provided by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which is part of Goldman Sachs, one of the largest financial institutions in the world.
One of the reasons for the investment named by Jimi Macdonald, an investor in SoftBank, was the growing global need for electrification.
The funding will finance the building of a USD 200M campus for Rimac which will be located in Zagreb, Croatia. Additionally, Rimac will use this funding to invest in talent, development, production of batteries, and other such activities. The CEO of Rimac, Mate Rimac, stated that the investment will be vital for Rimac to stay independent of larger automakers: “It’s very good for us to have Porsche and Hyundai on board as shareholders, but we don’t want to be fully dependent on them.” At the present moment, the founder and CEO Mate Rimac is the only shareholder of Rimac Technology which recently became completely independent and in the ownership of Rimac Group. In November Bugatti and the Rimac hypercar division merged which resulted in the creation of the company Bugatti Rimac. Bugatti Rimac is currently in the development of the Rimac Nevera hypercar, valued at USD 2.5M. Rimac Nevera will be released this summer as a 1,914- horsepower EV and will allegedly accelerate from 0 – 60 mph in less than 2 seconds. Rimac is the majority shareholder of Bugatti Rimac, where Rimac Group holds 55% and 45% is owned by Porsche. Finally, Mate Rimac is the largest shareholder of Rimac Group. It is currently unknown what portion of the shares SoftBank and Goldman Sachs acquired in return for the investment.
Further on this topic, the president of the CVCA, Mirna Marović stated:
“The investment led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Goldman Sachs in series D rounds with the participation of existing investors, Porsche and InvestIndustrial, of EUR 500M per valuation of the Rimac group at two billion euros is extremely important for Croatia.
Softbank Vision Fund (SVF) 1 and 2 are the two largest venture capitals and the two largest technology investors in the world. SFV 1 with an estimated size of USD 100B began investing in 2017, and SVF 2 ‘worth’ USD 40B began investing in 2019. Goldman Sachs Asset Management is one of the most famous financial investors in the world. This transaction puts Rimac and Croatia on the radar of all large and significant investors, which puts Croatia from a small emerging market alongside the most developed markets in the world. Surely this transaction will also contribute to the increased interest of other global investors.
Croatia stands out as one of the leaders of the CEE region to a single extent – the number of unicorns per capita. In Croatia, there are as many as two unicorns, and technology companies financed by venture capital whose market value exceeds USD 1B – Infobip and Rimac Automobili. In terms of the number of unicorns per capita, we are second only to Estonia, which historically has as many as seven. In comparison, Italy has only one unicorn, confirmed last year, and the economy is immeasurably larger.
This transaction is also a confirmation that private equity and venture capital investments are aimed at promising Croatian companies to turn towards global trends and markets, concluding with the listing of current and future Croatian unicorns on the world stock exchanges. Private equity and venture capital investments are about to put in the economy that we as a society desire, a that as a society will lead us into the circle of the most developed countries.
The incredible news is how much the Croatian private equity and venture capital market has flourished despite the many black swans that surround us. Last year, according to official Invest Europe statistics, we attracted EUR 312M of private euros and venture capital investments, which represents an increase of 130% compared to the year before, and we have seen a similar growth rate since 2017. Unofficial figures give even more reason for optimism, with totals of private equity and venture capital investments exceeding EUR 650M.”