Named By The Paper As Small Business Innovator Of The Year

The founder Airware, a startup company that designs hardware, software, and data storage for commercial UAVs, has been named the Small Business Innovator of the Year by USA Today.

Jonathan Downey is the CEO of the San Francisco-based tech company. He was selected from among 10 finalists by a panel of USA Today editors and Matt Erlichman, the CEO of porch.com and last year's winner.

Downy has grown his company to nearly 90 employees in the past year, and could double his staff in 2016, according to the paper.

According to its website, Airware's operating system enables businesses to safely operate drones, manage a variety of aircraft, and integrate aerial data into design, engineering, asset management, and decision workflows. The company has partners and service providers in 11 countries including Australia, China, France, and the U.K. as well as four in the U.S.

The company has developed navigation software, as well as cloud services to collect and manage data gathered by unmanned aircraft.

USA Today editor in chief David Callaway said that Downey's company "is not just an example of finding a demand to fill, but seeing the demand before it even exists."

(Image from Airware via Facebook)

FMI: www.usatoday.com, www.airware.com