# Abdigani Diriye

> Abdigani Diriye, born 1986: Somali computer scientist at IBM Research Africa and founder of Innovate Ventures.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/abdigani-diriye/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who is he?

Abdigani Diriye is a Somali computer scientist and research scientist at IBM Research Africa, working on human-computer interaction, data mining and financial technology ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdigani_Diriye)). He left Somalia for the United Kingdom at age five because of the conflict (same source). See [Somalis in the UK](/en/diaspora/united-kingdom/).

## Education

He studied computer science and mathematics at Queen Mary University of [London](/en/diaspora/london/), took a master's at King's College London, a PhD in computer science at University College London in 2012, and an MBA at INSEAD in 2022 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdigani_Diriye)). He then did postdoctoral research at Carnegie Mellon University (same source).

## Work

At IBM his team builds ways to assess credit for people applying for loans, including a 2016 machine-learning approach to credit scoring for Africans ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdigani_Diriye)). In 2012 he founded Innovate Ventures, a startup fund in Somalia that has worked with Oxfam, VC4Africa and Telesom (same source). He has published more than 35 patents and papers (same source).

## Awards

He was a TEDGlobal 2017 fellow, a Next Einstein Forum fellow, an MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 in 2017, and a Quartz Africa Innovator in 2018 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdigani_Diriye)).

## In short

A London-trained computer scientist building credit tools for Africa and backing Somali startups.

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