Our Founders

The people behind Petiole

Petiole is an award-winning agritech company that turns a smartphone camera into a precise plant-measurement tool. It was founded by two people who set out to solve one very practical problem — and stayed to build a global platform for plant science.

A hand holding a smartphone running Petiole to measure the area of a leaf in the field with computer vision.
Our story

It started with a friend and a poplar leaf

Co-founders Andrii and Maryna started Petiole to help their friend Vyacheslav, an ecologist at the Institute of Evolutionary Ecology in Ukraine, who was struggling to measure the area of poplar leaves. Existing solutions — dedicated leaf-area meters and software such as ImageJ — were not affordable, accurate, or easy enough for real fieldwork.

Anticipating a future built on high-throughput phenotyping of structural and functional plant traits, they designed Petiole Pro: a mobile application with the world's most accessible digital leaf-area meter, alongside modules built on computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Today Petiole is a UK-based company motivated to empower global communities by widening access to innovative agtech.

Portrait of Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Petiole.

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

Co-founder & CEO · Advocate for smart farming and female leadership in agriculture

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko is focused on implementing AI applications in agriculture. She holds a Ph.D. in Business Law from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine), along with the IEMA Foundation Certificate in Environmental Management and certifications from UPOV. Maryna is a winner of an Innovate UK Women in Innovation 2026 Awards and has successfully led three projects funded by Innovate UK (including MooMore) and has represented her work at high-level events across the UK and the European Union.

A regular speaker at educational events, she advocates for smart farming and promotes female leadership in agriculture. She runs a project called Agfluencers to empower female leadership in sustainable agriculture and to support ESG initiatives.

  • Fellow of the WIPO & ITC SheTrades programme "Scaling young women's businesses through IP mentorship".
  • Pre-selected member of the Women in Innovation Community Forum, funded by Innovate UK and the Winner of Women in Innovation 2026 Awards
  • Author of the Udemy course AI in Agriculture: Practical Introductory Course, with 3,200 students from 121 countries.
  • Represents Petiole at high-level events across the UK and the European Union.
marynakuzmenko.com ↗ AI in Agriculture ↗
Portrait of Andrii Seleznov, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Petiole, speaking at a conference.

Andrii Seleznov

Chief Technology Officer

Andrii Seleznov

Co-founder & CTO · Author of Petiole's algorithms, software, and hardware

Andrii drives innovation, provides leadership, and steers Petiole's technical growth. He is the sole author of all of Petiole's algorithms, software, and hardware solutions. Andrii began his career as a software engineer over two decades ago. After obtaining the UK Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa in Digital Technologies in 2016, he moved from Ukraine to the United Kingdom, where his work has focused on developing uniquely sustainable products and processes in the agtech and agrifood sectors.

He has represented Petiole on several pre-selected Global Business Innovation Programmes, bringing the Petiole app and Petiole Pro to Canada, Colombia, Kenya, Singapore, Switzerland, and Germany. He also received a full bursary to participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India in 2017.

  • Sole author of every Petiole algorithm, software module, and hardware design.
  • UK Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa in Digital Technologies (2016).
  • Brought Petiole to six countries through Innovate UK's Global Business Innovation Programme.
  • Works with academia and industry to enable cutting-edge plant-science and phenotyping research.
Our history ↗ Petiole Pro ↗
Global impact

What the founders have built

From a single leaf-measurement problem to a computer-vision platform cited by researchers worldwide and backed by Innovate UK.

120+

Research Citations

10k+

Downloads

3,200

Students trained

121

Countries reached

Work with the team

Building the future of digital agronomy

Whether you are a researcher, grower, or agribusiness team, Maryna, Andrii, and the Petiole team would be glad to hear from you.

Contact our team Our history