Aditi Balbir

Founder, V Resorts

Her Story

Aditi is the sole woman founder of a hospitality business that has successfully scaled in a new segment and merged with a strategic partner. Having previously worked with marquee names such as Barings Private Equity, McKinsey & Company, etc. she has extensive hands-on experience with investment, scaling and start-ups. She started V Resorts in 2014. V Resorts, on its own, is not a typical start up in woman sector - it is not fashion, healthcare, lingerie, interior decoration, or content for that matter.

V Resorts is into aggregation of premium properties (4-rooms to 30-rooms) at offbeat and emerging locations, where it aims to present curated properties for an experiential holiday. In that sense, it goes a step further beyond Airbnb and HomeAway by layering small properties with professional handling and creating seamless experience delivered by technology

The Venture has seen 4 successive rounds of capital raise from institutional investors like CDC, Seed fund and Avenues. Her venture raised a total of $17 million of which $10 million was deployed in technology, manpower and operations.

With several accolades such as UNWTO award for sustainability, CNBC TV 18- Young Business Women Awards, Women Economic Forum, BW 40 under 40 etc, and an extensive women network through various forums such as DWEN, Fortune MPW, Cherie Blair foundation, Massive incubator for women, ET women, UN women, PHD / FLO / Assoc ham, WEF, TiE etc, I intend to work towards supporting women entrepreneurs.

she was working for a VC fund before her venture. Moreover, the incubator that funded the company was able to open up the network to get connected to other funds easily. If not from the investing background, it is imperative to associate with a network or an incubator or accelerator to access investors.