Hood River's Overwatch Imaging rides AI wave, is hiring
- Overwatch Imaging
- 19 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Hood River tech company is riding one tech trend and bucking another
Hood River tech company Overwatch Imaging is riding one tech trend and bucking another.
The company, which makes sensor systems and data management software for manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, is benefiting from the explosion of interest in artificial intelligence. The growth means that, unlike a large swath of tech companies, Overwatch is hiring.
The 10-year-old company employs 40 workers, with the majority based in Overwatch's Hood River headquarters. Founder and CEO Greg Davis expects that number to grow to 60 by the year's end.
Last year the company was profitable, said Davis. However, it did raise $6 million in the first half of 2025 to pursue growth opportunities. To date the company has raised $20 million from investors across three rounds. Local investors include Elevate Capital and Portland Seed Fund.
Davis describes the company’s work as autonomy software and airborne intelligence. Overwatch’s technology helps employees who are assigned to examine images more efficiently find something in those images.
“We work on problems where users are trying to learn about things in the world — growth of a wildfire, extent of a flood or earthquake damage, or a missing person in a maritime search scenario,” said Davis. “We work on making the process of search and finding things automatic.”
He noted that for many white-collar workers, software that automates data management is standard practice. But, for disaster response, or civilian and military surveillance work that's mission and time critical, the process of analyzing images is still painfully manual.
“It’s a person who watches a screen and looks for things to happen and when it happens they shout on the radio,” he said.
Overwatch is building a market around making those jobs more efficient with AI. And that is resonating with customers and investors, said Davis. What started as working with wildfire response has spread to other similarly critical areas.
“We started working with customers that carried us into new areas and geographies,” he said. “We work with clients on six continents.”
Davis expects revenue to grow more than 50% this year. The company has a roughly 50-50 split between civilian and military, including coast guard uses.
The company has five open roles listed on its website, including software engineering intern, electrical engineer and senior product marketing lead.
The hiring is fueled by such elements as growing defense budgets, Davis said. Plus, the current administration is prioritizing change, technology acquisition reforms and a general embrace of new technology.
“That is positive for our business and the applications we support,” Davis said.
There is also a renewed emphasis on wildfire management and changes in how land is managed across the country on both federal and state levels.
As the company pursues larger opportunities, it has developed more partnerships with go-to-market collaborators around the world, said Davis. This means working with larger image and sensor companies that provide hardware for customers, after which Overwatch can provide the autonomy software.
“We continue to develop the autonomy and AI software: That is really exciting,” he said.