Why We Invested in Bugatti
HOF Capital is leading a consortium to acquire Porsche's stakes in Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group, becoming Rimac Group's largest shareholder alongside founder Mate Rimac.
In 2006, an 18-year-old in the small Croatian town of Samobor bought a rusting 1984 BMW 3 Series, hoping it would be his cheapest route into amateur motorsport. A few races in, its combustion engine blew. Rather than replace it, he chose the harder path: he would build his own electric powertrain from scratch, in his parents’ garage, using parts he sourced online.
Two years later, at age 21, Mate Rimac founded Rimac Automobili in a country with essentially no automotive industry, no venture ecosystem, and no obvious reason to expect success.
Nearly two decades later, the company Mate built from that garage employs more than 2,000 people, produces some of the fastest and most technically advanced hypercars in the world, supplies electric powertrain systems to many of the largest automakers on earth, and since 2021 has served as the home of Bugatti, arguably the most iconic hyper-luxury automotive brand in history.
HOF Capital is proud to announce that we are leading a consortium to acquire Porsche’s equity stakes in both Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group. Following completion of the transaction, Rimac Group will consolidate Bugatti Rimac, and HOF will become the largest shareholder in Rimac Group alongside Mate himself.
For us, this is not a new relationship. It is the deepening of one we began years ago.
Why We Backed Rimac
HOF first invested in Rimac Group in June 2022, about a year after Rimac and Porsche established Bugatti Rimac as a joint venture and Rimac became its majority shareholder, with 55% ownership. At the time, we were drawn to what we viewed as a rare combination of assets inside a single company: Bugatti, an iconic luxury automotive brand with a century of heritage and innovation; Rimac Technology, a rapidly scaling business supplying EV components to Tier 1 OEMs; and Verne, an an autonomous vehicle startup which was subsequently spun out to develop and deploy robotaxis across Europe and the Middle East.
What made the opportunity truly differentiated, in our view, was the founder. Mate’s story—building a globally significant automotive company from a garage in a country with no automotive industry—is the kind of extreme outlier we are drawn to. He is the rare founder who has shipped world-record-setting hypercars, built a Tier-1 supplier business trusted by the largest names in the industry, and taken on the incumbents from a starting position with none of their natural advantages. We believed then, and believe more strongly now, that he is one of the most relentless and impactful operators in the global automotive and energy storage industry.
Why Bugatti, and Why Now
Few brands in any industry occupy the position Bugatti does. Founded in 1909 by Ettore Bugatti, the marque has spent more than a century at the top of the automotive hierarchy, with individual vehicles selling for millions of euros and waitlists that regularly extend years into the future. In a market where scale typically dilutes prestige, Bugatti has done the opposite: it has remained deliberately rare, technically uncompromising, and aesthetically singular.
Under Mate’s leadership since 2021, Bugatti Rimac has launched the Mistral, the Bolide, and unveiled the new Tourbillon—vehicles that have drawn significant demand and reinforced the brand’s position at the frontier of hyper-luxury performance. Bugatti today accounts for a substantial share of Rimac Group’s revenue and, in our view, represents one of the most durable franchises in the global automotive landscape.
Earlier this year, Mate began exploring a transaction to consolidate ownership of Bugatti Rimac and fully align the company around a single long-term vision. HOF stepped in to help support that effort by assembling a consortium to acquire Porsche’s stakes in both Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group. We are grateful to Porsche for the role they played in establishing Bugatti Rimac and supporting Rimac Group, and for their constructive engagement throughout this process.
The Partnership Ahead
HOF backs what we think of as n-of-1 founders: relentless individuals building companies we believe will define their category for decades. Our portfolio includes some of the most important technology companies of this generation, and Bugatti is, in our view, the automotive equivalent of those businesses: a category-defining brand whose long-term value compounds with patience, craftsmanship, and disciplined stewardship.
That is the spirit in which we are entering this partnership. Our role is not to reshape Bugatti or Rimac Group, but to help Mate and his team execute on the vision they have been building toward for years. That means supporting continued investment in technology and product, preserving and elevating the craftsmanship that defines Bugatti, and providing the strategic and financial partnership needed to capitalize on the opportunities ahead—whether in hyper-luxury vehicles, Rimac Technology’s growing order book with global OEMs, or Verne’s expansion across Europe and the Middle East.
The Road Ahead
The transaction remains subject to customary regulatory clearances and is expected to close before the end of 2026. Once completed, Rimac Group will assume full control of Bugatti Rimac, and HOF will join Mate as Rimac Group’s largest shareholder, working alongside our co-investors to support the company’s next phase.
For Bugatti, that next phase begins from an extraordinary position: a brand with more than a century of heritage, a product pipeline with years of demand ahead of it, and a leader in Mate Rimac who has spent nearly twenty years proving that the right founder, with the right conviction, can build a world-defining automotive company from almost anywhere.
Join Rimac and Bugatti
Rimac Group is hiring across engineering, design, manufacturing, software, and operations in Croatia and around Europe. If you are world-class at what you do and want to help build the future of hyper-performance vehicles, electrified powertrain technology, and autonomous mobility, explore open roles at Rimac here and at Bugatti here.