The world is committing vast capital to the AI build-out, while an open question runs underneath it: Africa’s place in where that value flows, and who helps direct it. The Counder network exists for collective understanding, bringing people from completely different worlds together, so cross-continental partnerships emerge. Once a year it gathers in full at Counder Conference in Cape Town, from 25 to 29 January 2027, and on the final day a new, bigger concept, Counder & Friends, brings thousands more into the week. For the continent’s founders, this is one way into that global collaboration. TechCabal is partnering with Counder to bring more of the community to the gathering.
The money is moving. Around the world, vast sums are being committed to building out AI: the compute, the models and the infrastructure the next decade of business will run on. That capital will create enormous value and the question this audience is already asking is no longer whether to use AI. But: what part will Africa’s founders, investors and people play in the AI-native future arising around us.
Especially the continent’s founders bring leverage they tend to underrate: a tech ecosystem that grew up mobile-first and infrastructure-light, building for scale under constraint. Fintech leapfrogged the branch; payments leapfrogged the card. That instinct is exactly what an AI-foundational world rewards. A system trained mostly on Western behaviour can misread African realities, which makes local understanding a moat the rest of the world cannot manufacture. But leverage on its own moves nothing. Collaboration does, when the people directing the capital, those building on top of it, and those who understand the market work the question out together. That is what Counder exists to make happen.
What Counder does
Counder is the network for collective understanding: curious people from every continent, every discipline and every walk of life, coming together to make sense of the world and act on it. On a foundation of trust, the network enables global business collaboration, bringing together leaders across industries and continents so that cross-continental partnerships form, deals take shape and projects start. For the continent’s founders, that is the opening.
Across the week, it works in two registers: a smaller gathering, Counder Conference, and the bigger day that closes it, Counder & Friends.
Inside the conference
Counder Conference is 500 leading voices across backgrounds and industries, invite-only; the number is being held because of limited spaces at its venues and deliberate curation.
The format does the rest. It runs as an unconference, with no keynote stage and no fixed panels. The participants drive the sessions together with partners, each contributing as much as listening. Conversations run under the Chatham House Rule, the convention set out in 1927 that lets you use what is said but never reveal who said it, so people speak plainly. The gathering holds 30+ nationalities across 5 continents, and is supported and endorsed by 25+ Equity Partners, the global family offices and investors who brought Counder to life.
Africa’s tech and VC ecosystem is represented with Counder alumni including Paystack co-founder Shola Akinlade, Go1 co-founder Melvyn Lubega, PiggyVest co-founder Odunayo Eweniyi and Ventures Platform founding partner Kola Aina — the kind of leading voices the gathering is built to bring in. Past Conference partners in the tech field have included OpenAI and 885 Capital, whose expertise deepened the conversation and whose networks widened it.
Where established meets emerging
Cape Town is a deliberate choice as a gathering place. It sits where the established meets the emerging, where technology meets rural areas, the forces driving the years ahead visible from the window.
“Counder exists to bring people from completely different worlds to the same table, work out what is actually happening, and turn that into something real, a partnership, a deal, a project that would not have happened otherwise,” says Michel Weiss, Founding Partner and CEO of Counder. “The AI shift is the clearest case yet for why that matters. Africa’s founders have a vantage point on it the rest of the world needs, and the point of the gathering is to connect that into the global conversation so the value flows both ways.”
What gets unpacked
Counder gathers to unpack the trends, sectors and markets reshaping the world, from Africa and other emerging economies to quantum technology breakthroughs and the global space economy. The AI Inflection is the underlying lens forming a core theme throughout — the moment has arrived where AI has stopped being a tool and has become the ground you build on. That shift is already visible on the continent. At Counder Conference 2026, Cassava Technologies, the group chaired by Strive Masiyiwa and led by Hardy Pemhiwa, unveiled with Martin Manniche’s AXON Networks what they described as Africa’s first end-to-end Operator-as-a-Service platform, an AI-managed network running across Cassava’s 110,000+ km fibre backbone, a collaboration the two firms brought to the Counder gathering exclusively. It is the system the network runs on, AI made foundational.
For founders here, that lands close to home: where AI as infrastructure compresses cost in fintech and logistics, and where the continent sets the terms of what gets built. These are working questions, sharpest when the founder, the investor and the public leader take them on together.
Counder & Friends: the network in full voice
On Friday 29 January 2027, the Conference opens into Counder & Friends, and the city joins in. Across Cape Town, partners and members host a full day of events, experiences and activations spanning sport, business, media and culture. Through their own networks, they bring in thousands of people and countless perspectives. The day closes with the Counder & Friends Celebration, an evening for all members, partners and their guests. TechCabal, as an official media partner, will be hosting its own event on the Counder & Friends day.
This is Counder in its most open form: vibrant, diverse, where collective understanding opens up. For the continent’s tech ecosystem, it is a day to get into the conversations and meet the people driving them. Counder & Friends is part of the network, and so is everyone in it: the Conference members, the alumni, the partners who enable it and the guests they bring. If the curated 500 is the network at its most distilled, this is the network thousands strong. It is also where the year’s bigger question stays in view.
“Africa’s young, technology-forward population has always been ahead of the curve, building for constraint and designing for scale,” says Leonard Stiegeler, Founding Partner and Chairman of Counder. “That gives the continent real agency in the AI shift, not as a market to be sold to, but as a partner in what gets built. The way you claim that agency is by being in the collaboration across borders, and that is what this network is aiming to provide a platform for.”
Finding your way in
There are several ways to take part. A limited number of Conference invitations open each year to self-application, as so-called mission partners. Organisations can partner with the network, including hosting their own events during the Conference as so-called knowledge partners and at Counder & Friends as so-called collaboration partners — to which they can bring guests. Anyone can register their interest to join in as guests at Counder & Friends. To learn more or get involved, visit counder.com.
About Counder
Counder is the network for collective understanding: curious people from every continent, every discipline and every walk of life, coming together to make sense of what is changing in the world, and to act on it. Its most concentrated expression is Counder Conference, the annual five-day gathering of its members & partners in Cape Town, which on its final day opens into Counder & Friends, when thousands more join the week. Counder Conference 2027 takes place from 25 to 29 January 2027, with Counder & Friends on 29 January. To learn more or get involved, visit counder.com. TechCabal is an official media partner of Counder.
