Felix Hüttenbach's Dubai base for Terranum and his infrastructure work

Felix Hüttenbach, the German-born entrepreneur who co-founded the COVID-19 testing company Sameday Health and later co-founded the data center developer Terranum, describes himself as a founder, investor, adventurer and YouTuber based in Dubai. The city is both his home and the registered base of his infrastructure business.

Profile in brief

• Name: Felix Hüttenbach (English spelling: Felix Huettenbach).
• Born: 31 August 1993, Germany.
• Residence: Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
• Company: Terranum, registered as Terranum Capital FZCO at IFZA Business Park, Dubai.
• Role: co-founder and partner.
• Self-description: founder, investor, adventurer and YouTuber.

A company registered in a free zone

Terranum's legal entity, Terranum Capital FZCO, is located at IFZA Business Park. IFZA is one of Dubai's free zones, designated areas that offer a dedicated framework for setting up and operating companies. Free zones are a common choice for international businesses that want a base in the United Arab Emirates while operating projects elsewhere.

The FZCO designation in the company name indicates a free zone company. For a business whose flagship project lies in another country, that structure provides a home base separate from the location of its assets.

Running a South African project from the Gulf

Terranum develops data center campuses powered by renewable energy. Its flagship project sits in Prieska in the Northern Cape: 100 MW, entirely off-grid, aimed at hyperscale customers by 2029. In March 2026, Hüttenbach travelled to Prieska with Terranum's Victor Decalf and the Prieska Power Reserve team to meet the mayor and senior officials about preliminary approval.

The arrangement illustrates a broader point about infrastructure companies: the headquarters and the physical asset do not need to be in the same place. What matters is the ability to coordinate partners, authorities and capital across borders.

Why founders choose Dubai

Dubai has developed into a hub for international business, and founders cite a range of general reasons for basing themselves there. These include its position between Europe, Africa and Asia, its air connections, an established framework for company formation in free zones, and a large international business community. For founders who travel frequently, a well-connected base has practical advantages.

A European perspective on company formation

Hüttenbach has also spoken publicly about how hard it can be to start a company in Europe. He supports the proposed EU Inc company form, but argues it can only work if formation becomes fully digital, including digital notarization. He sees notaries, waiting times and apostille procedures as obstacles.

He estimates that EU Inc together with digital notary solutions could lead to about 30% more unicorns in Europe by 2030. Without such changes, he argues, capital and talent will continue to move to the United States.

An international path

Hüttenbach's path has been international from the start. His education took him to TUM, a term at Berkeley and MIT. He moved his first company, an event production business started in Munich at 18, to Los Angeles before selling his stake, according to his own account. He later held a guest lecturer role at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Los Angeles, COVID-19 and Sameday Health

In Los Angeles, Hüttenbach started the company as co-founder and CEO in September 2020, initially as Sameday Testing before Sameday Health became the parent brand in March 2021, to provide fast COVID-19 testing to the public, after setting up a testing unit for companies at Quantgene when the pandemic began. Under his leadership, the company reached 55 US locations and more than 1,000 employees by April 2022. Los Angeles County alone accounted for 16 of those sites, but the footprint was national: by March 2021 the company listed more than 50 locations in 15 states, from California and Texas to New York and Washington, D.C. As CEO, Hüttenbach launched the House Calls service in November 2021 in select areas of cities such as Atlanta, Boston, Denver and San Diego, and by then the company reported more than 1.5 million tests performed. He says he is passionate about making healthcare more affordable, transparent and approachable, and House Calls were aimed at being cheaper than traditional house calls. In 2022 it added virtual urgent care, including travel medicine consultations, in select states. After stepping back in 2023, when he and the management team decided a physician should lead the company, he turned to investing and infrastructure. He argues that running Sameday Health, with its multi-site operations, official approvals and near-zero downtime, prepared him for the data center business he now coordinates from the Gulf.

Investing from the same base

Alongside Terranum, Hüttenbach is an angel investor in founder-led companies. According to his own disclosures, his angel positions include SpaceX, xAI, Platus (Y Combinator) and House of Macadamias. He sums up his approach with the line "Execution beats narrative."

Conclusion

For Hüttenbach, Dubai is less a destination than a working base: a place from which a German founder can run a free zone company, coordinate a renewable infrastructure project in South Africa and manage an international investment portfolio. His case shows how founders of infrastructure companies increasingly separate where they are registered from where they build. His personal challenges, from skydiving to flying lessons, are shared on YouTube and on Instagram as @felixhutti.