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 venture after Directi, Radix, Titan, and Zeta, according to TechCrunch. Neo wants to compete with Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, and project tools by bundling projects, documents, files, and AI into one AI-native work platform. The Bengaluru startup is already using Neo internally, including at Zeta, and plans to roll it out to mid-sized companies in the coming months.
Nauti's Take
Neo is a bet against the comfort layer of big-company software. Microsoft and Google will not be displaced because a startup tells a cleaner AI story.
The realistic wedge is teams already fragmented across docs, project management, files, and chat, and willing to test a completely new work loop. Until then, this is still founder narrative mixed with a useful reminder: AI office software is not settled, even if Copilot and Gemini act like it is.
Briefingshow
The interesting part is not another Office clone, but the attack on a core assumption: AI is not treated as a sidebar, but as the operating layer for work. That is where Microsoft and Google carry legacy product baggage, but also distribution, trust, and budget power. Neo has to prove that AI-native is actually better, not just fresher branding.
Sources