About NEO — NEO Market Intelligence

The Founder

The person who
built this — and why it matters.

Abhishek Bhardwaj

Founder & CEO · NEO Market Intelligence

"I built NEO because I spent 16 years watching smart organisations make expensive decisions on weak evidence. The market research industry had a delivery problem — outputs that looked impressive but didn't actually change what the client decided. I wanted to fix that."

Abhishek Bhardwaj is a Decision Scientist and Senior Strategy Leader with over 16 years of experience building insight-led growth engines across consulting and advisory environments. Before founding NEO, he served as Vice President of Business Research at Research Nester, where he built and commercialised a market intelligence practice that exceeded $2M in annual revenue — repositioning the firm from report sales to subscription-led strategic advisory.

His career spans five organisations — KPMG Global Services, Evalueserve, Phronesis Partners, Avalon Global Research, and Research Nester — each building on the last. He has directed analytics organisations of 100+ members across India, advised Fortune 500 strategy teams, and personally led engagements across ICT, Semiconductors, Financial Services, Healthcare, Energy, and Consumer markets.

What sets his approach apart is the belief that research must be tied to a specific decision, not a generic deliverable. Every engagement he has run starts with the question: what choice is this evidence meant to support? That principle is now the operating model of NEO.

Abhishek holds an MBA in Finance & Marketing from IIPM (2008), where he ranked first in his cohort and received the Academic Excellence award. He is certified in Predictive Analytics, Competitive Intelligence, Time Series Forecasting, and Advanced Data Visualisation — and has worked with platforms including Capital IQ, Bloomberg, Factiva, EMIS, Thomson Reuters, and Power BI.

$2M+

Intelligence practice built & commercialised

33%

YoY growth delivered through differentiated strategy

30%

Improvement in forecast reliability for clients

25%

Productivity lift across 100-member analytics team

20%+

Cost reduction via operating model redesign

1st

Ranked in MBA cohort · IIPM 2008

Research Nester

VP — Business Research · Noida · Built $2M ARR practice

Avalon Global Research

Manager — Market Research · Mumbai · 70-member team · Fortune 500 strategy

Phronesis Partners

Manager — Market Research · Noida · ICT, Semiconductors, Energy

Evalueserve

Senior Associate — Market Research · Gurgaon

KPMG Global Services

Team Lead — Market Research · Gurgaon · TAM/SAM/SOM modelling

Our Methodology

What primary research
actually means.

Most market research firms recycle published reports, restructure secondary data, and present it as intelligence. We do not. Every NEO engagement is built around original evidence gathered directly from the market — people who buy, people who compete, and people who regulate the space you are trying to understand.

Primary research is harder. It takes more time, more skill, and more judgement to synthesise. But it is the only way to answer the questions that actually matter to a decision-maker — the ones that databases and industry reports were not designed to answer.

Abhishek built the firm's methodology over 16 years of leading research programmes for Fortune 500 companies, PE funds, and growth-stage businesses. The core principle has not changed: research should end with a recommendation, not a summary.

Executive Interviews

In-depth conversations with decision-makers, buyers, competitors, and experts — structured to extract the information a decision requires, not just validate pre-existing assumptions.

Quantitative Customer Surveys

Statistically designed surveys deployed directly to target customer populations. We build the screener, own the field, and clean the data — not outsource it to panels of unknown quality.

TAM / SAM / SOM Modelling

Abhishek architected risk-adjusted market sizing models across KPMG, Evalueserve, and Research Nester. Our market size estimates use multi-source triangulation — not single-source extrapolation.

Competitive & Demand Intelligence

Structured analysis of competitor positioning, pricing, channel economics, and customer concentration — sourced from field research, not just publicly available filings.

Predictive & Scenario Modelling

Certified in Predictive Analytics and Time Series Forecasting, Abhishek's team builds demand scenarios and risk-adjusted forecasts that go beyond straight-line projections. Forecast reliability improvement of 30% is a documented outcome across engagements.

Board-Ready Synthesis

Every engagement ends with a structured decision narrative — the evidence, the conclusion, and the recommendation. Not 120 pages that leave the decision to the reader. Designed to travel to the board table without translation.

What We Are

Not a consultancy.
Not an agency.
Something sharper.

NEO Market Intelligence was built on a single conviction: that most market research is either too slow, too shallow, or too disconnected from the actual decision it was commissioned to inform. We built the firm to be none of those things.

We work at the intersection of primary research and strategic counsel. Every engagement starts with a specific decision our client needs to make — and ends with a clear, defensible recommendation backed by original evidence gathered in the field.

Our clients are global corporations entering Asia, private equity funds validating commercial assumptions, and founders who need to understand the market they are competing in before they can win it. What they share is that the stakes are high and the tolerance for being wrong is low.

We cover 32 markets across South Asia, Southeast Asia, the GCC, and select developed markets. Our sector practices are staffed by specialists who have spent their careers in a single industry — not generalists applying frameworks from the outside.

Primary Research at the Core

Every engagement is grounded in original data — executive interviews, customer surveys, expert networks, and in-market intelligence gathering. We do not recycle secondary data and call it a report.

Decision Science, Not Reporting

Abhishek built his career improving executive decision confidence — translating complex data into board-ready narratives and structured frameworks. That philosophy runs through every NEO engagement.

Recommendations, Not Reports

We end every engagement with a stated position. Not a summary of what we found, but what we conclude and what we recommend. Every deliverable is signed off personally.

How We Work

Rigorous process.
Fast enough to matter.

01 · Engagement

Brief & Scope

Every engagement begins with the decision, not the deliverable. We run a structured briefing with your team to define the specific choice being made, the evidence needed to support it, and the timeline that keeps the research actionable.

02 · Design

Research Architecture

We design the research programme from scratch — interview guides, survey instruments, expert panel composition, and secondary source mapping — calibrated specifically to your question. No off-the-shelf templates applied blindly.

03 · Field

Primary Research in Market

Our sector teams conduct research directly — executive interviews, customer surveys, competitor shadowing, and expert consultations. Synthesis begins as field data comes in, not after the field is closed.

04 · Delivery

Insight & Recommendation

Findings are delivered as a clear recommendation — what we found, what we conclude, and what we advise. Every NEO report ends with a stated position. Abhishek personally reviews and signs off every deliverable.

05 · Timeline

Speed Without Sacrifice

Most engagements run four to eight weeks. When a transaction or market window demands it, we compress to two. We run field research and analysis in parallel, not sequentially — a model refined across 600+ engagements.

06 · Relationship

Long-Term Intelligence Partner

Many of our clients return for multiple engagements across several years. We build institutional knowledge of your market over time, reducing brief-to-insight lead times on repeat work and improving the precision of each successive forecast.

Where We Are

Four offices.
One standard.

Noida, India

Headquarters · South Asia

The I-Thum Building, Office No. 602, Tower A, Plot No. A-40, Industrial Area, Sector 62, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 201301

Singapore

Regional Hub · Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia hub covering Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Specialist practices in financial services, technology, and consumer sectors.

Dubai

GCC & MENA Office

Our GCC and broader MENA practice, covering Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Egypt. Deep expertise in financial services, infrastructure, and real estate across the Gulf.

London

Europe & Global Clients

Our London office serves European and US multinationals seeking research on Asian and GCC markets. Primary interface for global corporates, private equity funds, and institutional investors.

What We Stand For

The principles
behind every
engagement.

These are not corporate values written for a brochure. They are the operating principles Abhishek brought from 16 years in the field — and the standards NEO holds itself to on every mandate.

Primary Over Secondary

We build every engagement around original evidence gathered in the field. Secondary research is context, not conclusion. If the answer exists in a published report, our clients do not need us to find it.

The Decision is the Brief

We do not accept vague mandates. Every engagement begins with the specific choice our client needs to make. Research without a decision at the end of it is an expensive document, not intelligence.

Uncomfortable Findings Travel

We tell clients what the research says, not what they hoped to hear. If the data contradicts the investment thesis, the entry strategy, or the pricing assumption — we say so clearly, and early.

Senior Accountability

Every NEO engagement is personally reviewed and signed off by Abhishek. We do not delegate accountability to analysts. The person with their name on the work is the person who ran it.

Speed Is Not an Excuse

We work fast because our clients' decisions are time-sensitive. But speed is not a reason to reduce sample sizes, skip difficult interviews, or soften findings. Rigour is non-negotiable regardless of timeline.

Selective by Design

We decline mandates we cannot do well. If a sector falls outside our expertise or a timeline is genuinely incompatible with rigour, we say so. We would rather lose the work than deliver something we cannot stand behind.

Licensing Options

Select a License Type

Choose the access level that suits your organisation. All licences include the full report, methodology appendix, and structured data tables. Post-sale analyst support included.

US $4,550

✓ Report accessible to 1 user only

✕ No printing / editing rights

✓ 8 hours of post-sale assistance by Market Analyst

✓ 5% or 16 hours customisation

Get Access →

Suitable for individual researchers

US $5,050

✓ Report accessible to 5 users

✓ Rights to print / edit

✓ 16 hours of post-sales assistance by Market Analyst

✓ 10% or 40 hours customisation

✓ Direct access to Lead Analyst

Get Access →

Best value for strategy teams

US $8,450

✓ Report accessible to unlimited users

✓ Rights to print / edit

✓ 40 hours of post-sales assistance by Market Analyst

✓ 20% or 70 hours customisation

✓ Direct access to Lead Analyst

✓ Organisation-wide intranet / presentation rights

Get Access →

For enterprise-wide deployment

The firm
behind the
intelligence.

The person who
built this — and why it matters.

What primary research
actually means.

Not a consultancy.
Not an agency.
Something sharper.

Rigorous process.
Fast enough to matter.

Four offices.
One standard.

The principles
behind every
engagement.

Licensing Options

Quick Contact

Need help fast?

The firmbehind theintelligence.

The person whobuilt this — and why it matters.

What primary researchactually means.

Not a consultancy.Not an agency.Something sharper.

Rigorous process.Fast enough to matter.

Four offices.One standard.

The principlesbehind everyengagement.

Licensing Options

Quick Contact

Need help fast?

The firm
behind the
intelligence.

The person who
built this — and why it matters.

What primary research
actually means.

Not a consultancy.
Not an agency.
Something sharper.

Rigorous process.
Fast enough to matter.

Four offices.
One standard.

The principles
behind every
engagement.