Porsche has just invested another €70million (RM342 million) in Rimac, increasing its stake in the Croatian tech company from 15.5 to 24 per cent.

Since Porsche first invested in the company in 2018, Rimac has doubled its workforce to nearly 1,000 people. Besides Porsche, it works with Hyundai, Kia, Aston Martin, Automobili Pininfarina, Koenigsegg and others. Of course it’s also developing its own all-electric hypercar – the final production-ready version of the 1,887bhp, £1.7million (RM9.7 million) C_Two will be revealed later this year.

Lutz Meschke (Porsche’s ‘Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board and Member of the Executive Board for Finance and IT’) says Porsche has “already placed its first orders with Rimac for the development of highly innovative series components”.

“Mate Rimac inspires us with his innovative ideas,” he adds. “By the same token, he benefits from our know-how in production and methodological expertise in development.”

In a statement posted on Facebook, Rimac founder & CEO Mate Rimac stressed it’s “in the interest of both Rimac and Porsche that Rimac is a fully independent company”.

“We are working with many car companies that are not our shareholders and there is a clear separation between shareholding and projects. It is very important to us that our industry customers have the peace of mind that Rimac is independent and that there is a ‘Information Firewall’ between projects and shareholders (not only Porsche, but also Hyundai and others) - and this will not change.”