Investment Plan for Europe: EIB supports Croatian Rimac Automobili in development of high performance electric vehicles and components

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  EIB and Croatian Rimac Automobili sign EUR 30 million loan for investment in research and development of electric vehicles and related components;
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  Transaction is guaranteed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the heart of the Investment Plan for Europe
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  Rimac will scale up its activities, accelerate investments into RDI, industrialisation and ramp-up its production capabilities

The European Investment Bank announced that it will provide EUR 30 million loan to the innovative car company Rimac Automobili. The financing will allow the company to further develop its electric driving technologies. It will also support the company`s transformation into a technology solutions provider for electric vehicles and a industrial-scale producer of components for the global automotive sector.

The financing comes in the form of growth capital loan, under the European Growth Finance Facility (EGFF), a mechanism launched in 2016.

Enabled by a guarantee form the EU budget, under the Investment plan for Europe (the Junker plan) the loan will allow Rimac Automobili to continue its strong growth. The company has doubled in size over the last 12 months, now employing over 450 people with the majority of them in R&D. Rimac’s goal is to become, one of the major employers and exporters in Croatia. Rimac will also use the loan to accelerate its research and development and increase sales and marketing effort to enable planned expansion into Asia and Europe.

Vice president of the European Investment Bank Dario Scannapieco said: “Today EIB partners with a company that writes the history of the global automotive industry. EIB is proud to support job creation, support the local economy and Croatian exports, as well as transition to environment friendly transport, and advance the European science, research and development. Rimac is a great story of success build on determination, vision and innovation and one of the reasons why the EIB exists - to support trail-blazing, innovative companies capable of developing not just themselves but their industries and their communities too.”

European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said: "Decarbonisation is at the heart of our transport policy. I welcome this new project under the Juncker Plan, which will help develop innovative solutions for electro-mobility in Europe and stimulate the demand for zero-emission vehicles, alongside our efforts to deploy the alternative fuels infrastructure. Coupling decarbonisation and innovation with job creation is truly a win-win for all. "

Founder and CEO of Rimac Automobili Mate Rimac said: “It is a long and difficult road to build an automotive and technology company, especially in a country where nothing similar has been done. Access to capital was very difficult for us in the early days, with investment activity in this part of Europe being quite low. However, based on our results and accomplishments, more and more international strategic partners such as Porsche, are ready to invest in the company. We welcome EIB’s initiative to enable later-stage startups to have an alternative to traditional equity investment. This funding will help us accelerate our efforts and scale faster and bigger.”

About Rimac Automobili

Rimac is a technology powerhouse, developing and producing the world’s fastest electric hypercars Concept_One and C_Two and providing full technology solutions to global automotive manufacturers - Porsche, Renault, Seat, Aston Martin and more.

As part of its recently published Innovative Transport study, EIB’s Innovation Finance Advisory (IFA) identified and sourced Rimac Automobili as a highly innovative company in the EV automotive sector. IFA provided advisory services to Rimac Atomobili on refining its business plan and funding structure in preparation for an EIB financing.

About the European Investment Bank (EIB):

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union and is owned by the EU Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals both in Europe and beyond. The European Investment Bank is active in around 160 countries

About the Loan

This loan is part of the European Growth Finance Facility (EGFF), a product designed to address a (quasi-)equity gap linked to structural market failures across the EU in the provision of risk capital to late-stage venture-backed companies. European SMEs and Mid-Caps suffer from systemic shortages of large, non-dilutive financing for growth investments, both tangible and intangible. The EIB financing is expected to have a positive crowding-in effect, attracting additional private investors to companies.

To date, signatures under EFSI programme European Growth Finance Facility amount to EUR 966.5m after the completion of 41 deals; the total authorized amount for the EGFF programme is EUR 1.75bn.

Investment Plan for Europe

The Investment Plan for Europe, (the Juncker Plan) is one of the EU's key actions to boost investment in Europe, thereby creating jobs and fostering growth. To this end, smarter use will be made of new and existing financial resources. The EIB Group is playing a vital role in this investment plan.

With guarantees from the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the EIB and the European Investment Fund (EIF) are able to take on a higher share of the risk in projects, encouraging private investors to participate in these projects. EFSI was initially intended to mobilise investment of EUR 315 billion throughout the EU over a period of three years until mid-2018.

In December 2017, the European Parliament and Member States reached an agreement to extend the duration of EFSI to 2020, with the aim of reaching EUR 500 billion of additional investments by then. In addition to EFSI, the new EIAH advisory platform helps public and private sector project promoters to structure investment projects more professionally. The Investment Plan is also creating a more investment-friendly environment in the EU.

In November 2018, the Juncker Plan had already mobilised EUR 360 billion of additional investments, including over EUR 1 billion in Croatia, with 850 000 small and medium businesses set to benefit from improved access to finance.