Brazos County’s fastest growing private companies have been recognized along with a local company excelling in its early years of existence.
Winners in the 2021 edition of the Bryan Rotary 10 Business Performance Awards were announced at a luncheon Wednesday, June 23. Each year since 1994, the Bryan Rotary Club has recognized small businesses headquartered in Brazos County and in existence at least five years.
In addition to the top ten honorees, the Brazos Valley Economic Development Corporation names a winner of its Launch Award each year. Bondwell Technologies, which is commercializing a biomaterial-based platform technology designed to immobilize and stabilize proteins, earned the honor for 2021.
“We are proud to be a part of the growing biotech culture in the Brazos Valley,” said Dr. David Howell, Bondwell’s president/CEO. “There is a strong collaborative culture of innovation that has been critical for growing our company and has helped us leverage our biomaterials for applications in diverse fields, including pharmaceutical manufacturing and processing.”
The Launch Award is presented to a company in existence less than five years and demonstrating industry achievement of technology products. Their focus must be in target industry sectors including advanced manufacturing, agricultural sciences, biotech, engineering, R&D and professional services.
Blackrock Builders, LP was honored as the fastest growing company for the 2021 Bryan Rotary 10. Founded in 2015, the home builder saw sales growth of 303 percent from 2018 to 2020. Software company Frogslayer, LLC (222 percent sales growth) and roofing company CR Systems Inc. (187 percent sales growth) placed second and third, respectively.
A pair of Invest Brazos Valley members, Stafford Barrett Commercial Brokerage and Water to Wine Productions, finished sixth and eighth, respectively. IBV is made up of dozens of local companies supporting the BVEDC and the economic development of the community.
For the 2021 awards, sales had to be between $50,000 and $25 million in Fiscal Year 2016. Companies had to show a five-year sales history with an increase from 2018 to 2020. Franchises are not eligible for the awards.
Sterling Auto Group earned the Anco Insurance Award for Lifetime Business Achievement for its success and community contributions since its founding in 2000. Anco is the title sponsor of the annual awards.
The Bryan Rotary Club is celebrating 100 years serving the community. Its Business Performance Awards are presented in cooperation with the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce.
Bondwell Technologies was founded to commercialize a revolutionary biomaterial-based platform technology with the unique ability to safely immobilize and stabilize high concentrations of protein in an inexpensive and facile process. Proteins are nature’s workhorse and provide structure, function, and regulation for almost every biological task. Biological processes, and therefore proteins, have been used in a broad range of industrial applications for centuries; however, isolating a specific protein for a specific use is highly beneficial for high impact markets such as energy and medicine
Unfortunately, isolating protein is notoriously difficult and costly because proteins are easily degraded and difficult to store and produce. Bondwell Technologies’ platform solves these problems by inexpensively producing proteins bound to a novel material that protects them from degradation.
Bondwell Technologies is developing novel materials with a broad range of structural, mechanical and functional properties optimized for each application. Different applications require base materials with different mechanical properties and degradation rates. Bondwell Technologies has an array of materials capable of meeting a wide range of needs.
“The Brazos Valley is great for a wide range of reasons, including its innovation, its entrepreneurship, its growing bio sector, Texas A&M University and Aggies,” said Brazos Valley Economic Development Corporation President/CEO Matt Prochaska. “Bondwell Technologies' work is made possible through these elements and more, and we are proud to present their impressive team with our Launch Award to further help their growth in the community we call home.”