Today’s sponsor is a South African restaurant group in Houston that’s raising money on NextSeed to open a new location in Austin: Peli Peli. Thanks for supporting this site!
Do you know Peli Peli? The restaurant’s many fans won’t need an introduction, but here’s a quick history: The original Peli Peli, a South African fusion restaurant, started out in the Vintage Park Shopping Center in 2009. The management team consists of 2 UT Austin grads — Michael Tran and Thomas Nguyen — and executive chef Paul Friedman. A location in the Galleria (pictured above) opened in 2015. Last fall, the company opened a fast-casual version — called Peli Peli Kitchen — on the corner of Campbell Rd. and the Katy Fwy. feeder. And now Peli Peli has plans to expand to Austin.
The Austin location is scheduled to open in September, at 210 W. 3rd St. in the 2nd Street District. To fund the Austin restaurant buildout, Peli Peli is raising money on NextSeed. (Does that sound familiar? Well, it should: Last year the company raised $358,000 from 128 individual investors on NextSeed. Investors in that offering have now been receiving payments for 10 months already, according to NextSeed. The video above provides more detail.)
If you like Peli Peli, or are intrigued by the idea of playing a part in the restaurant’s continued growth, you may be interested in this latest NextSeed offering. NextSeed is a national crowdfunding platform that makes it easy to invest funds in local businesses and potentially see financial returns with monthly payments. Peli Peli’s Austin expansion is just one of the offerings currently available to investors on NextSeed. Between its Texas affiliate and its newer national platform, NextSeed has facilitated more than $3 million in small business investments.
The minimum investment in a NextSeed offering is only $100 — and anyone can invest. Recent changes in the law now make it possible for people of all income levels to join entrepreneurs in creating new concepts for their cities (or the cities of their alma mater). NextSeed carefully reviews every deal before presenting an opportunity to investors on its website. On NextSeed, Houstonians are empowered to invest in local bars, restaurants, salons, and other places they’re excited about (as well as outposts of those same establishments in nearby cities).
To get the word out about important Houston opportunities, smart companies sponsor Swamplot. Here’s how to find out more about our Sponsor of the Day program.
Early voting 
“Blame our city’s efforts at ‘planning’ in lieu of zoning. In the early 70’s, due to insufficient wastewater infrastructure, the city enacted a ban on apartment buildings of more than 4 units inside the Loop (driving much of apartment development to Uptown and Meyerland) and enforced a 5000-sq.-ft. minimum lot size. This gave rise to the Montrose 4-plex (of which there are 
