Why Tech in Devon is Booming. What Changed?
- Peter Jackson
- Dec 5, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 8, 2025
Devon is rapidly emerging as a technology hotspot. We can thank strategic investments, strong research partnerships, and a thriving innovation ecosystem.
But what has been the main catalyst for the recent acceleration since 2020?
Public Private Partnerships: Science Parks and Innovation Hubs
The region’s “golden triangle” of Exeter Science Park, Plymouth Science Park, and the EPIC Centre in Torbay has become a magnet for cutting-edge businesses.
These hubs host over 140 organisations working in advanced manufacturing, health tech, environmental science, and digital innovation. They provide state-of-the-art facilities such as clean rooms, additive manufacturing labs, and metrology centres, attracting both startups and established firms from across the UK and beyond.
However, as well as being centres for developing new technologies, their locations have been well suited to demoing new technologies in a real-life business park.
Strong Academic Links and Talent Pipeline
Partnerships with the University of Exeter and University of Plymouth underpin Devon’s tech growth.
These institutions contribute world-class research in fields like climate science, clean mobility, and AI, while initiatives such as the Future Skills Centre ensure a steady supply of skilled professionals for high-tech roles.
This is a win-win for young professionals seeking a career in the tech space, offering the work-life-balance encouraged by Devon's beautiful surrounding countryside - but also the buz that was once limited to a large city like London or Manchester.
Synergy between Industries: Live demos that showcase technologies working together
Digital technology is the fastest-growing sector in the South West, with Exeter emerging as a hub for software and fintech competing globally.
Other areas such as clean energy, advanced engineering, and transformative healthcare are also expanding, supported by regional strategies like the South West “Build Back Better” plan.
And when demoed on the science parks themselves, investors can quickly see how each sector can work together to improve the lives of residents in the UK. A demo for a digital cloud hub controlling automatic barrier access might be a software technology for IoT, but this creates a platform for demoing other technologies such as green technologies that could power the electronic barriers and turnstiles.
Organising a Business Digitally for Investor Funding is Easier than Ever
Just as showing a 'data room' for the technology has sped up investor decisions for startups seeking funding, building a digital LMS of all SOPs, processes and policies has become faster and cheaper.
This helps investors identify a 'scale ready' business as well as the maturity of the technology, building confidence that their captial is being invested into a business that is organised enough to cope with large-scale operations as customers increase.
OnePal supports startups with this in the form of a plug-in-and-play digital hub, including a mobile LMS (for storing SOPs, processes and training plans for teams on the go), as well as task management for coordnating teams and other business modules such as CRM, IT Files and more.
In-fact, OnePal was developed and then demoed directly in the Devon Science Park ecosystem, and it is thanks to the other technologies on these science parks that we were able to demo the smart digital passes that open automatic gates and turnstiles in real-time.
The 2020 Pandemic made tech gimmick serious technology
The pandemic of 2020 was a serious accelerant of technologies that already existed:
Access control systems could already open doors and barriers with a proximity card, but social distancing normalised opening barriers with an app.
The need for a digital-first workplace became a requirement, not a luxury, expanding the market for digital cloud hubs connecting teams whether working remotely or on site.
The idea of using business software on mobile as well as desktop became more practical. Device speed, response time and battery life was now ready.
2025 feels more like 2035 compared to 2019. And now that software, IoT , AI datacentres, and green technology are being pushed by government policy, businesses are ramping up their adoption of digital technologies to make their teams more productive.
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