After 15 years of building and scaling V Resorts in hospitality and eco-tourism, Aditi Balbir, founder of EcoRatings, made a pivotal shift: from creating sustainable travel experiences to building AI-driven sustainability solutions for organizations worldwide. Scaling V Resorts showed her that sustainability isn’t a peripheral choice—it’s a core strategic necessity. She saw firsthand how economic success and environmental impact reinforce one another. Her journey from eco-tourism to GenAI-powered climate intelligence reflects a deep conviction that purpose and profitability can coexist. EcoRatings was born to scale that impact globally through AI, making sustainability measurable, actionable, and accessible for every organization.
Defining Lessons from Past Ventures
Aditi’s experience combines entrepreneurship, investing, sustainability, and technology. The biggest lesson she carries forward is that enduring companies are built by solving real, systemic problems rather than chasing trends. She learned the importance of resilience, customer-centricity, and long-term thinking. At EcoRatings, those lessons guide how they build technology that creates both business value and measurable impact.
Why “EcoRatings”?
The name reflects Aditi’s belief that “what gets measured gets managed.” “Eco” represents environmental and social responsibility, while “Ratings” represents transparency, accountability, and decision-making. Together, EcoRatings stands for transforming sustainability into quantifiable intelligence that organizations can act upon with confidence.
The Market Gap EcoRatings Fills
Sustainability reporting and ESG compliance are becoming increasingly important globally. Aditi and her team recognized that the real challenge wasn’t ambition—it was execution. Organizations were overwhelmed by fragmented data and evolving regulations, instead of taking meaningful climate action. EcoRatings transforms sustainability from a manual reporting burden into an automated, intelligent, real-time decision-making capability.
AI Agents and Carbon Credit Tokenization
EcoRatings is building an IP portfolio of AI agents for sustainability applications and carbon credit tokenization. Most organizations want to become sustainable but struggle to understand their actual environmental impact because the data is scattered, complex, and difficult to interpret. EcoRatings acts as an AI-powered sustainability intelligence layer that turns fragmented data into actionable insights, helping organizations reduce emissions, improve efficiency, and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Founding EcoRatings: INR 75 Lakhs and a Focus on Proprietary Tech
The company started with an initial investment of approximately INR 75 lakhs. Most of that capital went into AI research, product development, and assembling a team that combined deep ESG expertise with enterprise-scale technology capabilities. The focus was on building proprietary technology and sustainability intelligence from day one.
Building Trust in a Specialized Domain
Building a brand in Sustainability AI requires trust and credibility. EcoRatings built an industry-, geography-, and framework-agnostic platform with a proprietary dataset and patented AI, ensuring relevance across global markets. Their audit-grade intelligence and complete traceability from source data to outputs have helped establish credibility in a rapidly evolving sustainability landscape.
Fundraising: From Vision to Execution
Aditi has successfully raised multiple rounds of funding in previous ventures and now secured pre-seed funding for EcoRatings. Fundraising has evolved from selling a vision to demonstrating execution, market validation, and defensible IP. Investors today look for clarity of problem, scalability, and proof of value creation. One lesson remains unchanged: capital follows conviction, and conviction is built through consistent execution.
What Resonated with Investors?
Investors were fascinated by the convergence of two transformative trends: sustainability and GenAI. EcoRatings’ proprietary ESG-focused AI architecture, growing patent portfolio, and vision of becoming the AI-powered sustainability backbone for enterprises created a compelling opportunity to build category-defining infrastructure.
Global Frameworks Shape EcoRatings’ Solutions
Aditi has worked extensively with global sustainability frameworks, including those from the United Nations, IFC, and the World Economic Forum. These experiences provided deep insight into how sustainability challenges vary across industries and geographies. It helped them build solutions that are globally relevant and adaptable to evolving regulations. Most importantly, they reinforced the need for transparency, measurable impact, and practical implementation.
Angel Investor, Mentor, Advocate for Women-Led Startups
Beyond being a founder, Aditi Balbir is also an angel investor, mentor, and advocate for women-led startups. Mentoring founders and investing in early-stage ventures constantly exposes her to new ideas, challenges, and perspectives. It reinforces the importance of empathy, adaptability, and ecosystem-building. Leadership, for her, is not just about creating successful companies but enabling others to succeed and creating pathways for inclusive innovation.
Long-Term Vision: The AI-Powered Sustainability Backbone
Aditi’s long-term vision for EcoRatings is to become the AI-powered sustainability backbone for enterprises, governments, and individuals globally. She believes technology, when aligned with purpose, can drive unprecedented change. EcoRatings’ goal is to make sustainability measurable, actionable, and embedded into every decision. If EcoRatings succeeds, sustainability won’t be a report filed once a year—it will be intelligence that drives daily choices, reduces emissions, and accelerates the global transition to a low-carbon future. And that, for Aditi Balbir, is the legacy she wants to build.
Interview By : Sejal Thakur
