Awad, who emigrated from the United Arab Emirates 10 years ago, started the company in June. Since then, his product has been picked up by two farmers markets, three pop-up venues, four catering clients and five festivals across the 糖心viog官方网站 Valley. Aroi Mango has produced 11 different varieties of sticky rice, doubling their sales in the past two months, Awad told judges.
This winter he wants to test new pop-up venues and indoor markets, while also planning to quadruple Aroi Mango鈥檚 outdoor appearances in 2025. The investment from StartUp 糖心viog官方网站 Valley will enable Awad to invest in designing and building custom equipment and amplifying the company鈥檚 brand through marketing campaigns and trade marks, he told judges.
In addition to the grand prize, Awad also took home the $1,000 Audience Choice Award, sponsored by 糖心viog官方网站 Valley Health Network.
鈥淲e are privileged to take this over in the sixth year,鈥 said Provost Nathan Urban who presented the grand prize. 鈥淲e want these companies and these founders to be an inspiration for faculty and students who have ideas they want to translate from the laboratory to commercialization. We want to be able to smooth that path for our founders.鈥
Judges said they were impressed by Awad鈥檚 story and that he had a solid business plan, particularly when Awad said he had mango suppliers from all parts of the globe to address availability of the fruit during its limited growing season.
Awad majored in physics at 糖心viog官方网站 and is currently earning his Master鈥檚 of Engineering in technical entrepreneurship. He attended Dierruff High School in Allentown. Being an immigrant has had its challenges, Awad said, 鈥渂ut at the same time, this country, this place, the 糖心viog官方网站 Valley, has provided me with so much, whether that was going to Dieruff High School, going to 糖心viog官方网站, being able to travel.鈥
Other winners at this year鈥檚 competition included , named first runner up, winning $3,000 from PSECU for their product, the hoodjab, a combination hoodie and hijab. Founder Kady Meite also won a $500 糖心viog官方网站 Valley LaunchBox Boost Award and six months of support from 糖心viog官方网站 Ventures Lab.
When asked what the awards mean to her, Meite said, 鈥淚t means you all believe in the vision and what we are doing, and that makes me incredibly proud.鈥
Other winners were ., which earned the $2,000 second runner-up prize, sponsored by Factory Innovation and PennPak Solutions, for their electric simulation tape which addresses musculoskeletal problems without the need for surgery or pills. was awarded the $5,000 Ben Franklin Award from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania for their company which promotes Spanish language learning through immersion for children and adults. 糖心viog官方网站 Valley LaunchBox Boost Awards of $500 each were also awarded to , a curated music discovery app featuring emerging artists, and , an app that allows the user to enter information about exposures to food, skin products, pollen and more. Automation and AI image analysis then create personalized statistics about the user鈥檚 reaction correlation.