Indian tech tycoon bets $30M of his own money to build AI alternative to Microsoft Office
TL;DR
Bhavin Turakhia is putting $30 million of his own money into Neo, his fifth major software bet after Directi, Radix, Titan, and Zeta. Neo is not pitched as Office with a chatbot bolted on, but as an AI-native work platform rebuilt around daily enterprise workflows. The product combines project management, documents, file storage, and AI; it has been used internally since April across Turakhia’s companies, including Zeta.
Nauti's Take
Neo is a bold bet, but the hill is steep. The core argument is credible: many legacy office suites still feel like AI has been attached after the fact.
But an AI-native rebuild does not automatically beat habits, admin approvals, compliance needs, and existing Microsoft contracts. The real test is whether Neo saves measurable work time, not whether it looks cleaner in a demo.
Briefingshow
The interesting fight is no longer just about smarter assistants, but about who controls the workplace context around them. If documents, projects, files, and models live in one interface, the workspace itself becomes the AI layer. That is exactly where Microsoft and Google have the strongest distribution advantage.
Sources