Mate Rimac was selected from among the 36 candidates from the 28 companies, representing a broad spectrum of sectors from all over the country. Rimac Automobili is a hard-core technology company with the mission to re-shape different industries and bring sportscars to the next level. The company was founded with the vision to create the sportscar of the 21st century. Today, they are unleashing the full potential of Nikola Tesla’s invention, the alternating current electric motor, in many ways and industries. They are full solutions provider, from turnkey solutions to high performance components, which are designed, developed and produced in-house. A strong R&D team enable them to be fast, flexible and efficient when providing different solutions to their customers, and they are able to meet all needs for serial development, production and validation.

In addition to the main prize, the International achievement award was given to Siniša Stanić, founder and CEO of Simplex d.o.o. The winners were chosen by an independent judging panel comprised of investors and entrepreneurs Nenad Bakić and Saša Cvetojević; 2015 winner Đuro Horvat of Tehnix; Vedrana Jelušić Kašić, EBRD Director for Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and Slovakia; 2016 winner Marko Pipunić of Žito; 2014 winner Alan Sumina of Nanobit; Lajoš Žager, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business in Zagreb; and chaired by Emil Tedeschi, President and CEO of Atlantic Grupa.

The winners were selected among the five finalists who also included: Stjepan Basar and Boris Ferkula of AQUAESTIL PLUS d.o.o.; Alen Magdić of Multinorm d.o.o.; and Frane Franičević and Darko Paviša of RASCO d.o.o.

Mate Rimac will join other national winners in June in Monte Carlo and compete for the world’s most prestigious award for entrepreneurs – EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year.

The program has been supported by Raiffeisenbank Austria acting as general sponsor, Tele2 as silver sponsor and G3 Spirits and Interkapital Grupa as sponsors. The American Chamber of Commerce and Croatian Employers' Association are partners of the program.