• DeepLeaf, founded in 2023 by Aboulmanadel El Mahdi, wins Orange POESAM Morocco 2025 prize.
• Its AI platform detects over 1,000 plant diseases, pests and deficiencies across 80 crops.
• Startup offers mobile app, drones and API tools to support precision agriculture.

Moroccan entrepreneur and AI specialist Aboulmanadel El Mahdi, founder and CEO of DeepLeaf, has won the first prize of the Orange Social Venture Prize Africa & Middle East (POESAM) Morocco 2025. His startup develops agricultural technology solutions using artificial intelligence.

Created in 2023, DeepLeaf has built machine learning models capable of detecting plant diseases from a simple photo of a leaf or fruit. Its AI platform can identify more than 1,000 diseases, pests, and nutritional deficiencies affecting over 80 major crops.

The system has processed millions of diagnostics worldwide and keeps improving through real-time feedback loops. Its models are tailored to local conditions and updated every two months with new data from experimental sites and new partners.

DeepLeaf also provides drones for crop monitoring and a mobile app for instant detection. It has developed an application programming interface (API) for agritech platforms seeking to integrate crop diagnostics into their services.

Aboulmanadel El Mahdi graduated in computer engineering from the Polytechnic School of Agadir in 2023. That same year, he won first place in the PitchAgriHack competition. In April 2025, he also took the top prize at the GITEX Africa innovation contest.