The world's best entrepreneurs gathered in Monaco for the annual Ernst & Young (EY) Entrepreneur of the Year Award ceremony. This year's event Croatia will be represented by Mate Rimac, the founder and CEO of Rimac Automobili, the Sveta Nedelja-based carmaker which produces the world's fastest electric supercar.

The announcement of the winner is expected on Saturday evening, with Rimac and 55 other entrepreneurs from around the globe invited to take part. The companies they run recorded a total revenue of more than $23 billion.

“We are doing something really specific, people find our story interesting, especially because this is happening in Croatia – the world’s fastest electric car, the interesting things we do – and that’s why they are interested to hear about us,” Rimac told RTL television.

“I’m not here to try and elbow my way into winning. We have achieved so much already by now. For us it is more important to achieve this business part of things, to make the company viable long-term, stable, to achieve the new goals we have set for ourselves,” said Rimac.

“Croatia has a lot of potential, but, for example, our GDP depends hugely on tourism and we a have very underdeveloped tech economy. We do have a few exceptions to the rule though, and excellent companies doing excellent work, but all that is weak compared to the wider region and developed countries. I think it’s important to show that in Croatia we can have successful tech companies, that there are people capable of building such a company, with employees, engineers, and so on. That we are not only seen as a country known for its islands and natural beauty but also for business. My goal is to attract other car companies to come to Croatia to do business here because we are maybe the only country in Europe without a car industry,” Rimac told RTL.

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