Exeter

By

Emma J

Last Updated: 11, September 2024

Exeter

  Number of Digital Jobs
  Digital GVA
  Digital Concentration
  Startup Births
  Average Advertised Digital Salary
  Tech Sector Growth Potential

What’s there

Devon’s cathedral city has big plans. It is witnessing more digital tech firms moving in and more startups launching.

The Met Office has been headquartered here since 2003, while Crowdcube, the UK’s leading crowdfunding platform, is based at the University of Exeter’s Innovation Centre.

Another supportive hub exists at the Exeter Science Park. Incubators include Being There, a robotics collaboration between five universities. Exeter City Futures is also active in the city. Meanwhile, Exeter Mathematics School is delivering skills for the future. The highly acclaimed school requires students to study A-level maths and either physics or computer science at A level.

What’s new

A lot happened in Exeter last year. Perhaps most exciting was the building of the Met Office’s new £97 million supercomputer. In 2016, ExeterWeb became TechExeter, a community with more than 600 members, and held its first conference. TechExeter’s sister community Digital Exeter is also growing steadily.

Elsewhere, Cyber Security Awareness Week was launched complementing the work of the South West Cyber Security Cluster at Exeter Science Park. Exeter’s largest co-working space the Generator also expanded by popular demand.

What’s up next

In April 2017, Space Apps will come to Exeter in collaboration with the Met Office to solve challenges set by NASA.

Like Minds conference returns to Exeter in September after travelling to Bristol, London and New York. What’s more, plans proposed by Westwood and the Eden Project will engage the agritech and foodtech industry in Exeter.

  • Joel Stobart

    CTO & Co-founder, Custodian Solutions

    What we do

    Custodian Solutions build collaborative cloud platforms to fight counterfeiting. Our technology
    empowers enterprises to take effective co-ordinated action against counterfeiters who cause suffering to consumers and damage brands.

    Why Exeter?

    Exeter is the most technology-loving city in the UK. It’s beautiful, with a strong community, adventure on tap, and a pool of engaged talent. The city enables our innovation with support of world-leading incubators like SETsquared.

  • Jim Strong

    Founder & Director, Geo.me

    What we do

    Selected as Google’s first UK Partner for Maps in 2009, we create Google-accredited, high quality solutions, (site locators, asset tracking and business intelligence maps), for global organisations, all delivered from our world-class mapping platform.

    Why Exeter?

    The South West has a deep pool of skilled talent, good quality of life and great value for money too.
    There is also a great networking community for building relationships.

Economic stats

14,018 Number of Digital Jobs Number of digital jobs – An estimation of employment in the digital tech industries and the digital tech economy. The APS has allowed us to capture digital embeddedness, that is digital experts working in non-digital industries. It also coves freelancers and self-employed workers. (Source: ONS Annual Population Survey)

0.47 Digital Concentration Digital concentration / Location quotient (LQ) – Indicates the geographic concentration of digital business turnover relative to the UK. A value of one indicates average digital concentration, while a value of greater than one indicates a higher concentration. (Source: BSD)

150 million Digital GVA GVA (Gross Value Added) – Average digital GVA between 2013-2015. GVA measures the contribution of each economic unit by estimating the value of an output (goods or services) less the value of inputs used in that output’s production process. (Source: ABS/BSD) .

82 Startup Births Startup births – Average number of startup births 2011 – 2015 (Source: BSD)

30% Turnover Growth
38,204 Average Advertised Digital Salary Average Advertised Digital Salary – Digital tech economy average salary (2016) in each cluster (source: Burning Glass)

Standard of living

7.88 Life Satisfaction Life satisfaction – Life satisfaction (10 pt scale, ONS data)

263,439 Average House Price Average House Price – Semi Detached Average House Price (Land Registry, Dec 2016)

6.9 Housing Affordability Ratio Housing affordability ratio – House price to salary ratio

Cost of doing business

18.5 Commercial Rent Per Annum (£ sq/ft) Commercial Rent Per Annum (£ sq/ft) – Prime office rents (JLL< 2016)

What local startups say is good

98% Overall Quality of Life
79% Tech Sector Growth Potential
50% Cost of Living

What local startups say is a challenge

65% Lack of Supply of Highly Skilled Workers
35% Limited Opportunities to Access Finance
32% Low Level Awareness of a Local Digital Industry
Download more details on survey responses for this cluster