Indian entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia is investing $30 million of his own money in a new enterprise AI company called Neo. The venture is built on the belief that workplace software developed before the AI era needs a complete redesign rather than just an upgrade with chatbots.
At 46, Turakhia is experienced in taking bold steps in enterprise technology. Throughout the last 20 years, he has co-founded various companies like Directi, Radix, Titan, and banking software firm Zeta, primarily using his funds before seeking external investors. He is adopting the same approach with Neo.
Speaking to JS, Turakhia explained he is funding the venture himself because he sees AI as a transformative technology that warrants rebuilding workplace software from the ground up.
“If you want to build an iPhone, you can’t take the parts of a Nokia and somehow convert it into an iPhone,” he explained.
Neo, launched internally in April, is a comprehensive enterprise work platform that integrates project management, documents, file storage, and AI. Turakhia’s goal is to make AI an integral part of everyday work rather than a separate tool employees consult.
Turakhia noted that most existing companies have an inherent disadvantage when incorporating AI into products designed before the advent of generative AI. Neo was developed with AI as a core element and is model-agnostic, enabling businesses to switch between AI models without being locked into a single provider.
Turakhia is not alone in this perspective. Investor Chamath Palihapitiya previously started the enterprise AI coding venture 8090 with his capital before securing a $135 million funding round recently.
Nevertheless, Turakhia’s venture enters a fiercely competitive field in enterprise AI. Major players like Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce are integrating AI into their workplace software, while startups from Anthropic and OpenAI to Notion and Superhuman are redefining AI’s role in business workflows.
Turakhia emphasized that enterprise software is not a winner-takes-all market, suggesting that even capturing a small portion of global enterprise AI expenditure could result in a substantial business.
“Even if we end up with 2% to 5% market share, that’s larger than anything I’ve built so far,” he remarked.
For several months, Neo has been tested within Turakhia’s companies, including Zeta. The plan is to launch the software to mid-sized businesses soon, initially focusing on knowledge workers in technology, consulting, and professional services sectors.
Turakhia revealed that Neo’s initial platform was developed in three months using AI extensively, a process that would have taken over a year with a larger engineering team prior to generative AI.
The Bengaluru-based startup currently employs about 18 engineers. Turakhia shared with JS that they plan to expand to around 45 employees by year’s end, with new hires primarily in AI and software engineering.
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