On the occasion of the 14th European Mobility Week aimed at promoting sustainable urban mobility, we spoke with Matija Krznar, the founder of Spin City – a car sharing service that works daily on this. It all started while he was a student at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, where he devised concepts for improving urban life in the form of restaurant bookings and similar. However, when traveling in foreign countries and seeing various transport services, he realized that there was great potential for this in Zagreb and began developing the idea of car sharing. The creation and development of a concept tailored to our market took nearly two years.
– We are a small startup company that has done something that much larger companies have tried, says Matija Krznar, who founded Spin City in 2015 and has since developed a recognizable brand until the launch of the car sharing service in June this year. Now Spin City has eight to ten employees and more than 500 registered users. With the arrival of autumn, their traffic is increasing, and they are getting closer to achieving their goal of fully covering all operating costs. – We need to work every day, every day is a fight for every user, says Krznar, who has invested about 3.3 million kuna into the entire project, which was the smallest possible investment cost considering they designed their own CRM system that could eventually become a commercial product.
Matija Krznar, the founder of the first car sharing service in Croatia, has faced many obstacles in the last two years, but with his persistence, he found a solution to every problem because, as he says, a true entrepreneur is like a weed, it grows out of every rubble and concrete.
Spin City offers 10 electric cars and 20 gasoline-powered cars, and they recently expanded the area where their service is available. Representatives from various local communities in Croatia and the region have shown interest in introducing car sharing services. However, their plan is to first develop business models here so that they can successfully implement them in other environments. In any case, they plan to expand through franchise sales using the tracking technology they have developed.
Ivana Krijan closely monitors all cars using a special application and is satisfied with the decent behavior of Spin City users.
Ivana Krijan, the fleet manager of Spin City, told us that new users primarily seek electric cars, but after a few rides, they no longer choose and drive the vehicle that is closest to them. Krijan ensures that all vehicles have a satisfactory level of fuel, are clean, technically sound, registered, and everything else that car owners need to take care of. She also revealed that there have been no traffic accidents so far, but a few cars in the parking lot have “earned” scratches.
In addition to transport services, their source of income is advertising. – We are the only car sharing service in Croatia, and therefore we are interesting to many advertisers who rent space on the rear window or on the back of the front seats where, in addition to posters, various brochures and flyers can be placed, said this young entrepreneur Krznar, who admits that the fact that they are the first in Croatia has, on one hand, worked to their advantage, but on the other hand, it has been quite challenging to convince financial institutions and investors that his project can develop in the domestic market.
However, they succeeded in this and received a subsidy from the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund for the procurement of electric vehicles (40% of the purchase value), and next year they should realize incentives from the Fund for technology procurement. Additionally, their potential was recognized by HAMAG BICRO, which provided a guarantee for 80% of the loan placement. Given that they achieved more favorable conditions through the HBOR’s EU beginner loan program, they have a favorable interest rate on the loan.
In the coming months, they will introduce a new service for business users – Spin City Business, which is being developed at the suggestion of users. There is already an option for all users to create a business profile, in which case the service is 25% cheaper. The new service will allow business users to have a shared account, but with multiple users. This will make the cost overview for each employee transparent, and all expenses will flow into one account, maximizing the reduction of administration. Additionally, the employer will be able to boast that the company is socially responsible.
Thanks to the European Mobility Week, Spin City has joined forces with the Nextbike public bike system and enabled a cheaper registration, which also grants free biking minutes. The new offer was presented on Friday, September 16, at King Tomislav Square in Zagreb. If you missed the presentation, here’s how to take advantage of the benefits: 1) Register at www.spincity.hr for 99 kuna, enter the promotional code SR6b5a80, and you will receive 25 bonus minutes for driving and a membership card. 2) After that, register completely free at www.nextbike.hr and you will receive 60 minutes of free rides on nextbike bicycles every day throughout the year!
Until September 30, you can also participate in the Spin the Wheel contest and win minutes for free rides with Spin City every day.
