LevelUp launches white-label version of mobile pay service

LevelUp today introduced a white-label offering in the hopes of making its QR code and NFC-ready mobile payment system the backbone of applications everywhere.

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LevelUp operates a mobile payment network with 3,500 U.S. merchants and nearly 300,000 active users. The Boston-based payments service is fresh off closing $21 million in funding.

Wednesday, LevelUp is opening its infrastructure to enterprises and app-makers who either want to plug LevelUp mobile payments into their applications using the company’s development kit or turn to LevelUp to build custom, fully branded experiences for them.

Both options allow businesses to receive the same benefits, including no transactions fees and a free terminal for accepting payments, as merchants who sign-up and are integrated into LevelUp’s existing network. The app-maker that taps the SDK to put LevelUp in his or her app will pay to run campaigns on the service, while the enterprise that goes the custom route may be charged $40,000 to $50,000 for application design and development.

For LevelUp, the white-label service is about meeting the market’s mobile payment demands, whatever they may be, founder and CEO Seth Priebatsch told VentureBeat.

“We … hit at the middle of a real, almost schizophrenic break in the industry right now,” Priebatsch said.

The break, he explained, is that half the world believes that an all-encompassing mobile pay solution such as Google Wallet will win out, while the rest of the world is confident that custom apps from brands such as Starbucks, which makes a popular pay-by-phone system, will be the long-term victors.

“Our belief is that we … don’t necessarily care quite how that plays out so long as what you, the customer, are paying with is LevelUp,” Priebatsch said.