After the big success with GMobile, I hit a wall.
I realized it was just too expensive to build a fully working autonomous vehicle, especially the bodywork, safety systems, and meeting legal regulations. At the time, there was only one major tech fund in Croatia and the region, and they were focused on software only. Let’s just say the Croatian angel investor scene wasn’t exactly booming, especially compared to the US or the UK.
So I asked myself: What’s smaller than a car, runs on electricity, and could be just as cool, but cheaper to build? (and I also didn't have my driver's license...) IT'S A BIKE!
Electric bikes were starting to gain traction between 2014 and 2017, and I jumped into it headfirst. That’s how Grunner was born, the world’s first fully connected electric bicycle.
The photo shows the second Grunner I built, which was successfully delivered to the Zagreb University of Applied Sciences. That same bike later became an “actor” in a Croatian TV show with Luka Bulić.
Filming that episode was an experience, full of fun, tech, cameras, professors, and colleagues. A memory I’ll always keep.
Grunner was more than just a bike. It had full connectivity, cloud sync, tracking, and machine learning algorithms, yes, even before the hype. It could simulate your ride, upload your route to the cloud, and optimize power consumption on the fly.
I personally wrote the power optimization software, which reduced energy use by around 25%, and later, that tech was acquired by a major conglomerate. That was a proud moment.
We were just missing one thing at the time: marketing power. But the vision? It was way ahead.
And this was just the beginning of the Grunner era, a time that made me, and later my colleagues, well-known in the world of electric bikes and smart vehicles.
More stories from that chapter are coming soon.
