Por Israel Pantaleón
August 11, 2026
Artemis arrives in Costa Rica after closing a $1.2 million pre-seed funding round, marking the start of its growth and visibility phase in the region.
Artemis offers its users one account in dollars and another in colones, both with assigned IBAN numbers, as well as an integrated digital asset wallet. This infrastructure enables transfers via SINPE to other banks in the country, connecting the platform directly to the Costa Rican financial system.
The company aims to become the financial layer that Central America has been missing by integrating colón and dollar accounts with IBANs—along with a digital asset wallet—into a single platform, allowing users to move, use, and manage their money seamlessly between traditional and digital systems, says Max Xiqués, CEO of Artemis.
"Artemis was created to address an obvious reality: the current financial system is not designed for the way people manage their money today. We want to give control back to the user by eliminating friction between currencies, systems, and platforms," said Xiqués.
The financial platform is working on developing new solutions that will expand its financial ecosystem, including: transfers via SINPE Móvil, debit cards, interest-bearing stablecoin savings accounts, and automatic utility bill payments—thereby consolidating a comprehensive approach to day-to-day money management.
Furthermore, the company's launch in Costa Rica comes at a time when users are demanding greater transparency, agility, and control over their finances, in contrast to traditional models that often prioritize internal processes over the customer experience. In this regard, Artemis seeks to position itself as an alternative that combines innovation, regulation, and accessibility.
"Rather than simply offering a new financial tool, we are building a platform that allows people to understand, use, and grow their money with confidence. Our goal is for anyone to become an expert at managing their finances," said Xiqués.
Costa Rica's fintech ecosystem is in its early stages of development, with a still-small number of startups and no success story to serve as a model for the ecosystem and thereby bolster its own consolidation, according to the study *FINTECH in Costa Rica: Toward an Evolution of Financial Services*
However, its technological capabilities and strategic geographic location, as well as the financial industry's need to address its main challenges through innovation, are helping to elevate the sector's importance and thereby drive its rapid evolution.
In the 2026 Global Startup Ecosystem Index, Costa Rica's startup ecosystem ranks 76th worldwide, down three spots from the previous year.
The Costa Rican ecosystem ranks second in Central America, a position it has held steadily since 2025. It ranks just behind Mexico and is followed by Panama.
