Neo bets on model-agnostic AI to replace legacy workplace tools

Bhavin Turakhia, the 46-year-old serial entrepreneur, is investing $30 million of his own capital to launch Neo, an enterprise AI platform. Turakhia is bootstrapping—funding the company with his own money—because he believes that workplace software designed before the AI era cannot simply be upgraded with chatbots. Instead, Neo’s core thesis is that enterprise tools must be rebuilt from the ground up to make AI an active participant in daily workflows rather than a separate assistant.

To achieve this, Neo is designed to be model-agnostic, meaning it is capable of using multiple different AI models so that enterprises can switch between providers rather than being locked into one. Turakhia argues that legacy incumbents face structural limitations when trying to retrofit AI into older systems. “If you want to build an iPhone, you can’t take the parts of a Nokia and somehow convert it into an iPhone,” Turakhia said. The platform, which launched internally in April this year, has been in use across Turakhia’s other companies, including the banking software firm Zeta.

Neo enters a highly competitive enterprise AI market, where tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce are embedding AI features, and startups like Anthropic, OpenAI, Notion, and Superhuman are racing to capture market share. Other founders are taking similar self-funded paths; investor Chamath Palihapitiya initially backed the enterprise AI coding venture 8090 with his own capital before it raised a $135 million funding round this week. Despite the heavy competition, Turakhia believes there is ample room for new players, noting that even a small slice of global spending would create a massive business. He noted that capturing even 2% to 5% of the market would result in a company larger than any he has built so far.

Neo plans to begin rolling out its software to mid-sized businesses in the coming months, initially targeting knowledge workers in professional services, consulting, and technology. To support this rollout, the startup is expanding its team:

• Current headcount: The startup currently employs about 45 people, including 18 engineers.
• Hiring targets: Neo expects to grow to around 100 employees by the end of the year, with a primary focus on software engineering and AI roles.

Why it matters

Turakhia’s $30 million bet highlights a growing conviction that generative AI requires a fundamental architectural shift in enterprise software, rather than simple feature integration.