What the heck is Banjo? The artificial intelligence firm in your backyard that's raised $250 million

Damien Patton likes to fly under the radar. Paradoxically, the founder and CEO of Banjo, a Park City-based artificial intelligence firm, takes leaps in his personal life as an offroading and skiing enthusiast. Unlike the visibility Skullcandy's hilltop perch near S.R. 224 affords the consumer headphone brand, it's not readily apparent to the vacationers, athletes and commuters passing through that Kimball Junction is the nerve center of a global data operation that just raised more than $100 million in its most recent round of funding. "You're always excited to see the fact that you're being successful with it, but actually, I don't dwell on it," Patton said in an interview, indicating he prefers instead to think about solving the problems of today and the future -- like homelessness, gun violence and the opioid crisis -- with big data. Petabytes of data pass through the unassuming Basin office park that houses Banjo's global headquarters and around 100 of its employees.