Scaling Heco – a regenerative enterprise model

2. AI-Powered Platform

To bring travellers to these villages, Heco builds an AI-powered platform designed for discovery and scale.

What travellers can do on the platform :

• Explore lesser known regions and unique experiences unavailable elsewhere
• Build a custom itinerary with the help of AI
• Receive automated, transparent pricing
• Match with compatible travellers to form a small group and reduce per-person cost
• Book directly and securely
• Access their Impact Dashboard, which shows the ecological regeneration their trip supports
  (e.g., “Your 10-day trip helped plant 12 trees and protect 2 hectares from forest fires.”)

What the platform enables for Heco :

• A trusted brand where travellers come to discover new, untouched regions
• A scalable model, because any local entrepreneur can apply online to become an HRP and onboard their region
• Lower acquisition costs over time through SEO and regeneration-driven storytelling
• A replicable methodology for community empowerment in every new destination

Heco’s long-term goal is to become for regenerative travels what Airbnb became for unique stays : the platform people visit when they want authentic, community-rooted, meaningful travel experiences.

Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM)

HECO focuses on higher-budget, long-haul international travellers and Indian domestic experiential travellers.

Two main customer groups

1. Foreign travellers (premium market)

• Average stay: 14 days
• Typical spend: USD 1,600 per person
• Today: 25% of HECO’s travellers
• Year 5: 60% foreign travellers (due to targeted marketing + premium products)

2. Indian experiential travellers

• Average stay: 5 days
• Typical spend: USD 220 per person
• Today: 75% of travellers
• Year 5: 40% of travellers

Why SAM grows sharply

• Shift toward foreign travellers → higher avg. revenue per traveller
• AI-powered platform → higher SEO visibility + conversion
• Marketing push → more foreign inbound leads
• Network effect of new regions → more pages, more search queries
• Brand recognition → steady organic growth that compounds over time

Stephan Marchal

Stephan has spent over two decades working at the intersection of rural development, community empowerment, and social entrepreneurship in India. His journey began with several years in the non-profit sector, working closely with indigenous communities in central and eastern India, before transitioning into building enterprise-led solutions rooted in local ownership.

In 2013, he founded Himalayan Ecotourism with a clear intention: to build a viable business model that could grow alongside local communities, rather than at their expense. Over the years, this approach has evolved into a broader ecosystem of initiatives spanning responsible tourism, women’s empowerment, and ecological restoration across multiple Himalayan regions.

Stephan’s work is grounded in long-term field presence, trust-based relationships with communities, and a belief that economic dignity, cultural confidence, and conservation must move together. Today, he continues to shape Heco as a platform for regenerative travel and community-led development.

Gaurav Pawar

Gaurav’s experience has been shaped through his long-term involvement with Heco and its evolution on the ground. Over the years, he has worked closely with local communities, field teams, and partners across different regions, gaining a deep, practical understanding of how community-led tourism operates in real conditions.

His journey within Heco has allowed him to witness first-hand how trust is built, how collective systems take shape, and how operational choices directly impact livelihoods and ecosystems. This sustained engagement has given him a strong grasp of the day-to-day realities of running responsible tourism initiatives, from coordination and logistics to relationship-building at the village level.

Gaurav’s contribution is rooted in continuity, presence, and adaptability, ensuring that Heco’s principles are translated into practices that work on the ground and can be strengthened as the organisation grows.

Prachi Jetley

Prachi brings a strong blend of strategic thinking, experience design, and operational execution within the travel and hospitality space. Her background spans technology, travel, and experiential design, with several years dedicated to curating culturally rooted journeys and managing their end-to-end delivery.

She has worked extensively on designing bespoke itineraries, coordinating with local partners, and overseeing complex trip operations, ensuring that traveller expectations, on-ground realities, and meaningful engagement with place remain aligned. Her work reflects a deep understanding of how thoughtful design and careful execution shape memorable travel experiences.

Alongside this, Prachi has been actively involved in community-focused initiatives with Himalayan Ecotourism in the Tirthan Valley, contributing to women’s empowerment, reforestation efforts, and education-related programmes. Her perspective connects traveller experience with social impact, reinforcing Heco’s vision of tourism as a tool for shared value and regeneration.

Shivya Nath

Shivya is a writer, storyteller, and sustainability advocate whose work explores the relationship between travel, environment, and personal responsibility. With years of experience documenting slow travel, conservation, and climate realities, she brings a deep reflective dimension to Heco’s vision.

Her perspective bridges lived travel experiences with broader questions around ethics, impact, and regeneration. Shivya’s engagement helps shape Heco’s narrative as one that challenges extractive tourism models while inspiring travellers to engage more consciously with places and people.

She contributes a strong voice to Heco’s mission of redefining what travel can mean in an ecologically fragile world.

Anirban Bhattacharya

Anirban brings a deep understanding of the corporate world, shaped by extensive experience working with businesses, investors, and institutions operating across complex market environments. His background equips him with a strong grasp of how capital moves, how decisions are made at the board and investor level, and how organisations navigate regulatory and policy frameworks.

He is particularly adept at analysing market forces, structuring growth narratives, and translating long-term visions into frameworks that resonate with investors and strategic partners. Anirban’s perspective helps bridge the gap between mission-driven initiatives and the practical realities of scale, risk, governance, and financial sustainability.

Within Heco, his contribution lies in grounding ambition within real-world economic and institutional logic, ensuring that the organisation’s expansion strategy remains credible, investable, and aligned with broader market dynamics.

Cherian Mathew

Cherian is a tech entrepreneur and three-time startup co-founder with a strong focus on climate and sustainability. Over the years, he has worked on building and scaling digital products and services designed to create a positive impact for both people and the environment.

His experience spans technology, product thinking, and entrepreneurship, with a particular interest in how digital tools can enable systemic change rather than superficial optimization. At Heco, Cherian’s background supports the development of a technology platform that remains deeply aligned with the organisation’s social and ecological values.

He brings a long-term, impact-driven perspective to the role of technology in shaping the future of regenerative travel.

Parul Anand

Parul works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethics, policy, and law, with a strong focus on ensuring that emerging technologies are developed and deployed responsibly. Her experience spans global AI policy research, responsible AI governance, and applied ethics, with contributions to both international and India-specific AI initiatives.

She has worked with leading policy and research organisations on questions of AI regulation, fairness, accountability, and transparency, including research on global AI governance trends, responsible scaling frameworks, and bias mitigation strategies. Her work has engaged closely with issues of data ethics, environmental impact, and the social consequences of AI systems, particularly from the perspective of the Global South.

At Heco, Parul’s role is to ensure that the organisation’s use of technology, especially AI-enabled systems, remains ethically grounded and aligned with community realities. She helps embed principles of transparency, fairness, and accountability into the platform’s design, while anchoring technological decisions in local socio-ecological contexts rather than abstract optimisation goals.

Parul brings a governance-oriented lens to Heco’s expansion, ensuring that innovation supports – rather than compromises – trust, dignity, and long-term responsibility.