Mobile payment formats appear to be the wave of the future and Mastercard has apparently just jumped into the fray. MasterCard (News - Alert) has announced that they have made an investment in seven-year old mFoundry that has made themselves a reputation as a good mobile banking company. This is the first real action MasterCard has made in the mobile payment sector, finally joining Visa and American Express (News - Alert).

While neither of the companies are divulging exactly what kind of investment MasterCard made, or what the terms are the small company was able to say that MasterCard is now their leading investor. Intel, Motorola (News - Alert), PayPal and Bank of America have all been investors in mFoundry before. In all mFoundry has a business relationship with more than 600 banks and credit unions.

While mFoundry (News - Alert) is now a well established financial organization, consumers will most likely recognize them for something they did in the coffee serving industry. The company came up with the design for the Starbucks mobile app that allowed people to scan a barcode on their phones, using a prepaid account to make purchases.

Over the last five years the company has turned its attention to mobile banking apps that allow customers to check their balances and send through transfers. MasterCard’s senior vice president of Mobile, James Anderson said that millions of Americans use their banking apps four or five times a week at minimum. 

In the future, MasterCard wants mFoundry to find a way to allow customers to use their Paypass NFC technology to be able to make payments at the register. Of course, MasterCard is actually covering all its bases by using mFoundry as its third choice when it comes to implementing Paypass. MasterCard has been working with Google (News - Alert) in order to get their Paypass off the ground as well.

For its part, mFoundry says that the agreement with MasterCard does not contain exclusivity. This means that mFoundry will be able to work with other credit card companies, but MasterCard will move to the front of the line when it comes to their app integration.