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Business Journals
23-04-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Revolution, Hilton team up to deliver Waldorf Astoria in Costa Rica
By submitting your information you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and User Agreement . The Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica Punta Cacique has been in the works for nearly two decades. In August 2007, Revolution LLC co-founder Steve Case and then-Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez jointly announced a new luxury, oceanfront resort Case was bringing to the Cacique peninsula in the Guanacaste province. More than 15 years later, the Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica Punta Cacique has finally opened as a joint venture between Revolution Places — the real estate and hospitality arm of D.C. venture capital firm Revolution — and the Waldorf Astoria's parent company, McLean-based Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT), the companies announced Tuesday. The beachfront resort has 188 rooms, a multilevel pool, 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a 17,000 square-foot spa and gym. It also has an eye toward sustainability, with native plants that help reduce water use on the property and greenery-covered rooftops to manage heat. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events Hilton and Revolution have also built 40 permanent homes on the site — 20 fully furnished 'estate homes' with private pools and 20 condos — and plan to continue adding homes, lodging and other amenities on the roughly 600-acre property in the near future, the companies said. expand The hotel's rooftops are covered in greenery. Revolution 'Growing up in Hawaii, I saw firsthand how the economy evolved from agriculture to tourism, and how that transformation strengthened Hawaii's economy and increased the value of resort real estate,' Case said in a statement. 'Guanacaste is now on a similar journey, offering a rare chance to invest in an extraordinary and accessible destination, while it remains an emerging opportunity.' Case and Revolution Places did not have any specific plans for the roughly 600-acre site when they purchased it in 2006, a spokesperson for Revolution told me over email Wednesday. However, when Case and the Costa Rican president announced the pending project in 2007, Revolution was partnering with One&Only Resorts to build 120 villas on the site, the Washington Business Journal reported at the time. One&Only was also planning to build a spa, an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts and a fitness center. That project was estimated to cost $800 million, with an initial target date of 2010, but that was eventually scrapped and the two parted ways. A Revolution spokesperson declined to disclose the cost of the new resort because the project is ongoing. Launched in 2006, Revolution Places has backed travel-themed companies, such as Miraval Resorts, which operates luxury resorts and spas in three states, and Exclusive Resorts, a membership-based travel booking service that owns more than $1 billion in luxury real estate in such locales as Napa Valley in California and the Hamptons on Long Island. It is also an investor in Maui Land & Pineapple Co. (NYSE: MLP), an operating company that owns more than 22,300 acres of land in Maui used for a combination of conservation and agricultural and commercial uses. Revolution Places was also part of a 2016 effort to bring the first U.S. location of Paris-based MOB Hotel to D.C. as part of a mixed-use development at 400 Florida Ave. NE. MOB Hotel will open its D.C. location in 2027, according to the company's website. Here are the 10 largest venture capital investors in Greater Washington Deals closed in 2024 Rank Prior Rank Name/Prior/URL 1 2 In-Q-Tel Inc. 2 4 Lockheed Martin Ventures 2 3 SaaS Venture Capital View this list
Technical.ly
08-04-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Corsha raises $18M for next-gen authentication platform, ‘like Okta for machines'
Startup profile: Cosha Founded by: Anusha Iyer Year founded: 2018 Headquarters: Vienna, VA Sector: Cybersecurity Funding and valuation: Raised $33 million to date, valuation undisclosed Key ecosystem partners: SineWave Ventures, Razor's Edge Ventures, Department of Defense A Northern Virginia cybersecurity firm that specializes in machine-to-machine authentication just landed millions of dollars to scale its services, hire staff and establish a research lab. Corsha, which today announced an $18 million Series A-1, builds identity security technology for operational systems and critical infrastructure. The tech is similar to what's used for human identity authentication — think logging into your work device or bank account — but instead of people, it's for machines, Corsha founder and CEO Anusha Iyer explained. 'If we look at that world and think about how systems are logging in, and proving their identity, and setting up their access to talk to something else, it's still stuck in the dark ages,' Iyer told 'Effectively, we're like an Okta for machines.' Founded in 2018, the Vienna-headquartered startup boasts high profile government customers like the US Air Force, and Iyer hopes to use these funds to expand the Corsha's technology into commercial uses. Tech giant Dell is a design partner, so is bringing the tech into its labs as an early adopter, per Iyer. McLean-based SineWave Ventures led the round, with participation from Reston's Razor's Edge Ventures and San Mateo County, California's Ten Eleven Ventures (both of the latter firms took part in Corsha's $12 million Series A in 2022). It was Corsha's usefulness at the intersection of government and commercial applications that stood out to SineWave partner Pat Muoio, whose relevant experience includes a stint as NSA chief of cybersecurity research. SineWave focuses on commercial companies that could bring value to the government space, Muoio said, including in cybersecurity, AI and analytics. 'Nothing really has been done in this space to keep up with the pace of how we identify humans,' Muoio told 'We were just psyched that [Corsha was] addressing this problem we were worrying about in such an excellent way.' Acting as a board observer for Corsha, she plans to meet with Iyer monthly, along with SineWave's Donna Dodson. The group will discuss the startup, Muoio said, but also the experience of navigating the technology sector as a woman: 'That's something that we went through, and can also help her with.' Expanding staff and launching a lab Because Corsha is focusing on expanding to more commercial uses, having this raise be an extension of the previous Series A made more sense to Iyer, the cofounder, who sees it as a 'stepping stone' to Series B. 'This raise is really focused on taking this now really mature product that we've proven out with some of these toughest customers in these tough environments,' she said, 'and taking it out to commercial enterprises.' Iyer described plans to hire 10 to 15 people in sales, go to market, customer success and engineering. Corsha currently employs 27 people, who all work hybrid. The firm's second office in Atlanta will close and be moved to Warner Robins, Georgia, to be closer to the Air Force base there. There are no employees stationed at that Atlanta office, Iyer said. Several existing employees at Corsha will be promoted to leadership roles, including a chief technology officer and a vice president of operations. A need to hire is what spurred Iyer to go out and raise. 'The biggest telltale sign is when you have way more work than you can handle,' she said. 'We really needed to scale the team out… I think that's a good indication of sort of the early product market fit as well.' The infusion of capital will also be used to build Corsha Labs, where staff will research different use cases for the startup's platform. It'll be key in improving the tech and understanding how it can fit into different systems, Iyer said. She also plans to publish its findings via blog posts and articles. 'It's meant to be a very hands-on lab,' Iyer said, 'that hopefully we're adding valuable thought leadership back into the community around some of the cybersecurity concerns we're seeing.'
