☀️ FOMO Berlin - Special Edition: Cape Town Calling Next Week: Counder Conference 2026 🌍

Hi FOMO Fam,

Are you ready for an unforgettable, truly world-class experience in Cape Town, South Africa?

Over the past few weeks, many of you have asked me the same question: Why Cape Town? Why are so many founders and investors suddenly spending serious time there?

Short answer: something is shifting.

Cape Town is becoming a meeting point for people who move significant capital, build large companies, and shape what comes next, long before it shows up in the headlines. 

The city already draws people in naturally. The climate. The lifestyle. Sport. Wine & culinary excellence. That nature. I could go on, but you know what I mean. 

But now, business is in the mix too. Deals are happening. New collaborations are being formed. Real work gets done. And the pinnacle of it? This year’s Counder Conference 2026 (www.counder.com/conference), happening next week, from 27-29 January.

I mentioned the gathering in my brand-new FOMO-Gruenderszene-newsletter (German: Link) and want to describe to you more here, before it all kicks off.

Let’s dive in together, before I dive in at Counder myself.

Is Cape Town the new Davos?

With the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, just ending today, the focus for many is shifting to Cape Town.

Here, 500 of the world’s most influential investors and decision-makers will come together to exchange on what’s next. Especially in sectors where capital moves faster than public perception: emerging markets, blockchain, AI, space, cannabis, sports as an asset class and everything in between - including new forms of philanthropy and impact investing.

The place where all this is explored: Counder Conference, the Counder-leadership network’s flagship yearly gathering.

Apparently, the gathering is to be in January for Germany’s, Europe’s, Africa’s and the world’s entrepreneurial and investment elite looking for tomorrow’s most important opportunities. It includes amazing founders, investors, family office principals, and cultural  & academic leaders who can afford to escape the winter elsewhere.

Is Cape Town the new Davos?

The question is intentionally provocative. Not a judgment. More an attempt at observation.

Because there are moments when things shift before they can be clearly named. Places gain significance long before they’re officially declared as such. Networks don’t form where you expect them, but where people choose to gather. Cape Town currently feels like that place.

Cape Town currently feels like one of those places.

The Counder Conference — who’s here, and why it matters

The Counder Conference is not a classic event. No trade fair. No public forum.

It’s a deliberately curated space that exists for a few days — and then disappears again. Just 500 participants. Invite-only.

No panels. No cameras. No quotes.

What sounds unspectacular at first glance is the real difference.

Without an audience, people speak differently. Without a stage, people listen differently.
The focus shifts from positioning to substance.

When multi-billion-dollar venture funds, multi-generational family offices, and international sports icons decide that a conversation in Cape Town is worth three days, that’s a signal.

And the whole thing is officially supported by the city, the province, and many leading local figures — who recognize the value of attracting more international capital to the region, not just tourists and digital nomads.

The guest list isn’t a marketing tool. It’s a filter.

Names like Dr. Jan Deepen (SumUp), Hans Otterling (Norrsken22), Robin Lingg (Ringier), Sudeep Ramnani (885 Capital), Mato Peric (MPGI), or Claudia Zeisberger (INSEAD) don’t show up because of prominence — but because of impact.

Add to that family offices and entrepreneurs from Europe, the US, Africa, and the Middle East. People you rarely see in the same room. And the Counder Conference brings them together.

What connects this group isn’t industry or origin.
It’s a responsibility. Willingness to decide. And the question of where capital should actually have an impact over the next ten, twenty years.

As described, Counder doesn’t see itself as an event, but as a global leadership network. A collective that shares insights, allocates capital, and forms partnerships — around what’s really happening at the edge of innovation..

What’s being negotiated here isn’t the future as an idea.
It’s the future in execution.

This is exemplified by Counder’s knowledge partners sharing real insights into what’s next in their industries - from the global AI-leader OpenAI to the European Cannabis-frontrunner Sanity Group. While the group of 20+ corporate partners is as diverse as the large Swiss media & marketplaces group Ringier to the leading African venture-fund Norrsken22, one element connects them and ties it all back to Counder: their laser focus on identifying tomorrow’s most important opportunities. By partnering with Counder for the conference and beyond (FYI: https://www.counder.com/partner/), they plug their insights into one of the most powerful networks globally - to enhance their chances of winning what’s next.

My perspective

I’m not going there to be impressed. Not for the views. Not for the names.

I’m going to contribute — so that something real can emerge. So conversations have consequences. So proximity creates responsibility. And so something real remains.

Access is easy today. Impact is not.

And maybe that’s exactly why Cape Town is the right place for these conversations.

Few cities make contrasts so visible: wealth and poverty, white and Black — side by side, not abstract, but real.

You talk about capital and the future and on the way there, you see what capital can do. Or what it doesn’t do.

Maybe Cape Town isn’t the new Davos. Maybe it’s its counter-model.

A place that makes one question unavoidably: What do we do with the power we have?

That’s exactly why I’m going. Not for the view. But for the friction.

And that’s where this special ends. Not with an answer. But with responsibility.

Keen to learn more? www.counder.com/conference

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